A California jury has ordered veteran entertainer Bill Cosby to pay more than $19 million in damages to a woman who accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her more than five decades ago.
The civil case, heard in Santa Monica, was brought by Donna Motsinger, now 84, who testified that she was working as a waitress when Cosby began targeting her in the early 1970s.
According to court testimony, Cosby first encountered Motsinger at the restaurant where she worked before later inviting her into his limousine. During one encounter, Motsinger said Cosby gave her a glass of wine along with what she believed was aspirin.
She told the court that she soon began drifting in and out of consciousness and later woke up at home wearing only her underwear.
“She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby,” the lawsuit stated.
Cosby, now 88, denied the allegations. His attorneys told the court that he did not recall any sexual contact with Motsinger and argued that if any encounter occurred, it would have been consensual.
After three days of deliberations, the jury ruled in Motsinger’s favor and awarded $19.3 million in damages. The amount could increase further if the court adds punitive damages.
The case was heard in the same Santa Monica courthouse where a separate civil trial in 2022 resulted in Cosby being ordered to pay $500,000 to Judy Huth, who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1975 when she was 16.
Cosby, once widely known as “America’s Dad” for his role on the hit sitcom The Cosby Show, was convicted in Pennsylvania in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting another woman. However, that conviction was overturned in 2021 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court due to a legal technicality, leading to his release from prison.
Over the years, dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, alleging he used drugs or alcohol to incapacitate victims before assaulting them.
