Nine women have filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby in Nevada, just weeks after the state abolished the statute of limitations for civil cases.
The lawsuit accuses Cosby of using his “enormous power, fame, and prestige” to isolate and sexually assault each of the women named in the lawsuit.
Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Janice Baker Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta, and Angela Leslie all claim the actor and comedian attacked them.
Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual abuse ranging from groping to rape by more than 60 women.
Many of the allegations are decades old but are being revived as states change statutes defining how courts handle sexual misconduct cases.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesperson, accused the women suing the comedian of being motivated by their “addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed”.
Wyatt said in a statement:
“From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts … against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside of the courtroom”.
Andrew Wyatt
The 85-year-old comedian has consistently denied all allegations of sexual abuse.
He did spend more than two years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in 2018.
However, that conviction was overturned in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the prosecuting district attorney was obliged to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge the actor after he gave potentially incriminating testimony in a civil suit.
Cosby was found civilly liable in 2022 for molesting Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975 when she was 16. His lawyers called her a liar.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed SB129 on 31 May, which eliminated the civil statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases involving adults.
Before that, the state had a two-year limit for adults to bring their cases to court.
Cosby faces a lawsuit in California
Ms. Lise-Lotte Lublin, a Nevada native, is one of the women named in the suit. She and other Cosby accusers advocated for the legislation change that made this new claim possible.
Lublin has publicly accused Cosby of drugging her at a hotel in Las Vegas in 1989, alleging that she met him in his room so that he could evaluate her acting with an improvisation.
Cosby is then alleged to have given her two drinks that he said would “help her relax”, but caused her to feel disoriented and he embraced her a short time after.
The comic then grabbed her wrists and held them between his legs, touching her hair as he masturbated, according to the filing.
All the other women level similar accusations against the comic, that he drugged and sexually assaulted them, often after inviting them to meetings regarding their careers.
Cosby is also facing a civil lawsuit in California, filed earlier this month by former Playboy model Victoria Valentino.
She has accused him of drugging her and raping her in 1969, which he has also denied.
Judy Huth, now 62, alleges the actor made her drink beer and molested her on a bed in 1974 when she was 15.
She claims Cosby, now 85, who is not planning to attend the hearing in California, invited her and a friend to the Los Angeles mansion the week after meeting them on a film set at a park.
There, she alleges, he forced her to perform a sex act.
Ms. Huth sued Cosby in 2014 and is seeking unspecified damages for sexual battery and emotional distress.
He denies the allegations.
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