Bill Cosby ordered to pay $19m over sex abuse claim

n n

(FILES) US actor Bill Cosby pauses to listen to a heckler, as he arrives at the Montgomery County Courthouse March 6, 2018 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. A woman who said she was drugged and sexually assaulted by veteran US entertainer Bill Cosby was awarded more than $19 million on March 23, 2026 after a civil hearing in California. Donna Motsinger said she was working as a waitress more than 50 years ago when the performer began to target her. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP)

n

A woman who said she was drugged and sexually assaulted by veteran US entertainer Bill Cosby was awarded more than $19 million on Monday after a civil hearing in California.

n

Donna Motsinger said she was working as a waitress more than 50 years ago when the performer began to target her.

n

The hearing in Santa Monica was told how the comedian had initially come into the restaurant where the now-84-year-old Motsinger worked.

n

One day when he picked her up in his limousine, Cosby gave her a glass of wine and what she thought was an aspirin.

n

She began slipping in and out of consciousness and the next thing she knew she was waking up at home, wearing only her underwear.

n

“She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby,” the suit said.

n

Attorneys said Cosby, 88, did not remember any sexual contact with Motsinger, but that any that had occurred had been consensual.

n

The jury took three days to deliver its verdict, ordering Cosby to pay $19.3 million, a figure that could increase if they add punitive damages.

n

The case was heard in the same courthouse where a 2022 jury ordered Cosby to pay $500,000 in damages to Judy Huth after finding that he had molested her in 1975 when she was just 16 years old.

n

The man formerly known as “America’s Dad” was jailed in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a woman in a separate criminal case in 2018, but was freed in 2021 when his conviction was overturned on a technicality.

n

Cosby was a towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture, including for his starring role in “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.

n

Dozens of women have accused Cosby of being a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol before assaulting them over four decades.

n

AFP

n n