Bill Cosby found liable for 1972 sexual assault, jury awards $59.25M to accuser
Bill Cosby was found liable Monday for drugging and sexually assaulting former waitress Donna Motsinger more than 50 years ago.
The former "Cosby Show" star was also ordered to pay $59.25 million in damages – $17.5 million for her past mental trauma and an additional $1.75 million for mental suffering Motsinger may experience in the future. She will also receive $40,000,000 in punitive damages.
Cosby's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that they are disappointed by the verdict, but fully intend to appeal the decision.
Motsinger accused Cosby, now 88, of drugging and raping her in 1972 while she was working as a server at The Trident, a popular restaurant in Sausalito, Calif.
Motsinger also filed the complaint against Cosby’s production company, Jemmin, Inc., as well as the Circle Star Theater, for "failing to ensure the safety of its guests at the hands of its performers," in documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
"Jemmin, Inc. is vicariously liable for Mr. Cosby’s sexual battery as Jemmin, Inc. authorized and ratified the sexual battery through Mr. Cosby himself," documents stated. In addition, Motsinger's suit said, "Jemmin, Inc. is guilty of fraud, oppression, and malice for the sexual battery of Ms. Motsinger at the hands of Cosby."
The Circle Star Theater is no longer in business. Motsinger claimed Jemmin was set up for the sole purpose of supporting Cosby's business and related pursuits.
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Motsinger said Cosby, a regular at The Trident, "followed her" home one night and asked her to go to one of his shows at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, Calif. He picked her up in a limousine, and gave her a "glass of wine in the limo along the way," docs stated.
Cosby was allegedly filming his comedy stand-up act for "Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby," the complaint said. She claimed that Cosby took her to the dressing room, where "she began to feel sick and Mr. Cosby gave her what she believed was an aspirin."
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"Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine with Mr. Cosby," the complaint stated. "In the limousine, Mr. Cosby sat near the window and put his arms around her. The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light."
Motsinger claimed she "woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on – no top, no bra, and no pants. She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby."
She said that due to the sexual battery, she "suffered economic and noneconomic damages to the maximum extent allowed by law, including but not limited to the lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and any other remedy available at law."
Motsinger also waged allegations against the Circle Star Theater, who "chose not to intervene" when she claimed to be unconscious.
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"At the theater, Ms. Motsinger was so drugged and sedated that she was going in and out of consciousness by the time she left in Mr. Cosby’s limousine," documents stated. "Employees and agents of Circle Star Theater knew or should have known of the dangerous drugged and sedated state that Ms. Motsinger was in and should have rendered care and aid to Ms. Motsinger."
Motsinger was one of the 12 anonymous "Jane Does" who testified in a 2005 civil rape case filed against Cosby by former Temple University athletics director Andrea Constand. The case was settled out of court one year later.
Cosby was released from prison in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his 2018 criminal conviction for sexual assault.
The disgraced actor, once known as "America’s Dad," served more than two years of his three-to-10-year sentence after he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman at his Cheltenham, Pa. home in 2004.
The state’s highest court threw out Cosby's conviction after finding that District Attorney Kevin Steele, the prosecutor who brought the case against Cosby, violated an agreement to not charge him that previous District Attorney Bruce Castor had made in 2005, though the deal had apparently never been put in writing.
Best known for "The Cosby Show," the actor maintained his innocence. He had been denied parole in May 2021.
In June 2022, jurors found Cosby sexually abused Judith Huth, who accused the former comedian of sexual assault at the Playboy mansion in 1975 when she was a teen.
Former Playboy model, Victoria Valentino, now 80, filed a lawsuit against Cosby in June, and claimed Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969. The model has previously spoken about her allegations against the comedian and even appeared at his sentencing in 2021.