Content material warning: This story accommodates dialogue and outline of claims of sexual assault.
Invoice Cosby has been served with a brand new lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault, filed on Monday (December 5) by 5 ladies who had beforehand alleged that the disgraced actor and comic had abused them.
As reported by The Guardian, the lawsuit claims that Cosby had assaulted every of the ladies – Lili Bernard, Eden Tirl, Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd – at numerous factors between the late Sixties and Nineteen Nineties.
It’s mentioned in authorized paperwork that NBC, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Carsey-Werner Tv had been all complicit in Cosby’s alleged misconduct, and “facilitated the sexual assault of girls” by refusing to observe his actions. A consultant for NBCUniversal rejected The Guardian’s request for remark.
In an announcement, lawyer Jordan Rutsky – who’s representing all 5 ladies on this case – mentioned that Cosby’s alleged misconduct was “not a hidden secret”, and was quite “simply accepted” by these within the movie and tv industries. Rutsky went on to assert that “there have been situations the place workers noticed this occurring and even inspired the plaintiff to submit [to Cosby]”.
In keeping with the lawsuit, Cosby preceded his alleged actions by drugging victims with capsules or by way of drinks he’d given them. Representatives of the actor have denied the legitimacy of those claims, nonetheless, with spokesman Andrew Wyatt saying the ladies “have resurfaced to file a frivolous civil lawsuit” in opposition to his shopper.
In an announcement printed by The Guardian, Wyatt claimed that “this isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s all about cash”.
One of many 5 accusers, Lili Bernard – who within the Nineteen Nineties, starred as Mrs Minifield on The Cosby Present – has a separate lawsuit in opposition to Cosby pending in New Jersey, regarding an incident that’s alleged to have occurred in Atlantic Metropolis. This alleged incident is unrelated to these outlined within the new lawsuit.
Again in June, Cosby was discovered responsible of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old woman in 1975. A majority of jurors discovered that Cosby had deliberately induced dangerous sexual conduct with Judy Huth, now aged 64, when the 2 met on the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Mentioned jurors discovered that Cosby fairly believed Huth was beneath the age of 18, and that his behaviour was motivated by unnatural or irregular sexual curiosity in a minor.
Through the years, Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by greater than 60 ladies. 2018 noticed him jailed for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, however this conviction was overturned on a authorized technicality in June of 2021.