Jurors at a civil trial found Tuesday that Bill Cosby sexually abused a 16-year-old girl in 1975.
The Los Angeles County jury delivered the verdict in favor of Judy Huth, who is now 64, and awarded her $500,000. She said the fact that jurors believed her story meant more than the sum of money or the fact that she didnB次元官网网址檛 win punitive damages.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 been torture,B次元官网网址� Huth said of the seven-year legal fight. B次元官网网址淭o be ripped apart, you know, thrown under the bus and backed over. This, to me, is such a big victory.B次元官网网址�
Jurors found that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Huth, that he reasonably believed she was under 18, and that his conduct was driven by unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in a minor.
The jurorsB次元官网网址� decision is a major legal defeat for the 84-year-old entertainer once hailed as AmericaB次元官网网址檚 dad. It comes nearly a year after his Pennsylvania criminal conviction for sexual assault . HuthB次元官网网址檚 lawsuit was one of the last remaining legal claims against him after his insurer settled many others against his will.
Cosby did not attend the trial or testify in person, but short clips from 2015 video deposition were played for jurors, in which . He continues to deny the allegation through his attorney and publicist.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said they would appeal the verdict and he claimed the defense won because Huth didnB次元官网网址檛 win punitive damages.
Jurors had already reached conclusions on nearly every question on their verdict form, including whether Cosby abused Huth and whether she deserved damages, after two days of deliberations on Friday. But the jury foreperson could not serve further because of a personal commitment, and the panel had to start deliberating from scratch with an alternate juror on Monday.
CosbyB次元官网网址檚 attorneys agreed that Cosby met Huth and her high school friend on a Southern California film set in April of 1975, then took them to the Playboy Mansion a few days later.
HuthB次元官网网址檚 friend Donna Samuelson, a key witness, took photos at the mansion of Huth and Cosby, which loomed large at the trial.
Huth testified that in a bedroom adjacent to a game room where the three had been hanging out, Cosby attempted to put his hand down her pants, then exposed himself and forced her to perform a sex act.
Huth filed her lawsuit in 2014, saying that her son turning 15 B次元官网网址� the age she initially remembered being when she went to the mansion B次元官网网址� and a wave of other women accusing Cosby of similar acts brought fresh trauma over what she had been through as a teenager.
HuthB次元官网网址檚 attorney Nathan Goldberg told the jury of nine women and three men during closing arguments Wednesday that B次元官网网址渕y client deserves to have Mr. Cosby held accountable for what he did.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淓ach of you knows in your heart that Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted Miss Huth,B次元官网网址� Goldberg said.
At least nine of the 12 jurors agreed, giving Huth a victory in a suit that took nearly eight years and overcame many hurdles just to get to trial.
During their testimony, Cosby attorney Jennifer Bonjean consistently challenged Huth and Samuelson over errors in detail in their stories, and a similarity in the accounts that the lawyer said represented co-ordination between the two women.
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This included the women saying in pre-trial depositions and police interviews that Samuelson had played Donkey Kong that day, a game not released until six years later.
Bonjean made much of this, in what both sides came to call the B次元官网网址淒onkey Kong defense.B次元官网网址�
Goldberg asked jurors to look past the small errors in detail that he said were inevitable in stories that were 45 years old, and focus on the major issues behind the allegations. He pointed out to jurors that Samuelson said B次元官网网址済ames like Donkey KongB次元官网网址� when she first mentioned it in her deposition.
The Cosby lawyer began her closing arguments by saying, B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 on like Donkey Kong,B次元官网网址� and finished by declaring, B次元官网网址済ame over.B次元官网网址�
HuthB次元官网网址檚 attorney reacted with outrage during his rebuttal.
B次元官网网址淭his is about justice!B次元官网网址� he shouted, pounding on the podium. B次元官网网址淲e donB次元官网网址檛 need game over! We need justice!B次元官网网址�
The Associated Press does not normally name people who say they have been sexually abused, unless they come forward publicly, as Huth has.
Outside court, a group of four women who said they represented dozens of CosbyB次元官网网址檚 sexual abuse victims celebrated the verdict.
Chelan Lasha, who testified against Cosby in the Pennsylvania case, was in tears. She said he had drugged and assaulted her in the Elvis Presley suite of the Las Vegas Hilton when she was 17 years old.
B次元官网网址淗eB次元官网网址檚 a boogey man, heB次元官网网址檚 a sexual predator, heB次元官网网址檚 a deviant,B次元官网网址� Lasha said. B次元官网网址淗eB次元官网网址檚 horrible. ItB次元官网网址檚 one more victory. I came here to stand with Judy. IB次元官网网址檓 proud of Judy. IB次元官网网址檓 glad for the outcome.B次元官网网址�
Brian Melley And Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
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