A jury has found for the plaintiff Judy Huth in a lawsuit against Bill Cosby that accused him of sexual assault.
The jury awarded the now 64-year-old Huth $500,000 in addition to ruling in her favor.
“Today our client Judy Huth won real change,” said attorney Gloria Allred, whose firm represented Huth. “Because she fought Bill Cosby, one step at a time, for over seven-and-a-half years. And she proved with the jury’s verdict that Mr. Cosby did sexually assault her when she was a minor. And he should be held – and was held – accountable for what he did to her.”
Huth alleged that Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975, when she was 16 years old. Huth claimed that Cosby instructed her to say that she was 19 if anyone asked. The actor and comedian was previously deposed in the case in October 2014.
Huth initially said the assault took place in 1974 but later revised the timeline to 1975, meaning she would have been 16. Cosby’s team unsuccessfully attempted to have the case thrown out of court over that change.
“My client deserves to have Mr. Cosby held accountable for what he did,” Huth’s lawyer Nathan Goldberg said to the jury. “Each of you knows in your heart that Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted Miss Huff,” Goldberg said.
The 84-year old comedian did not attend the trial, nor did he testity. The jury had to re-deliberate after they ran out of time last week since the Santa Monica Courthouse can’t pay its deputies overtime. They started over from scratch on Monday.
“While at the Playboy Mansion, plaintiff told Cosby that she needed to use the bathroom,” Huth’s lawsuit against Cosby reads. “Cosby directed her to a bathroom within a bedroom suite near the game room. When plaintiff emerged from the bathroom, she found Cosby sitting on the bed. He asked her to sit beside him. He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants, and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent.”
“She didn’t ask for it. She didn’t want it,” Goldberg said. “Imagine taking a minor to the Playboy Mansion. She’s not even supposed to be there. Taking his penis out … that’s malicious. … People are not supposed to do this in our society.”
The jury also featured an alternate after Judge Craig Karlan allowed one juror early leave Friday for a prior commitment.
Cosby was released last June after he served three years of a three-to-10-year Pennsylvania state prison sentence over a felony sexual assault charge from 2018. In overturning the conviction, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that Cosby cannot be retried and that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by an agreement from his predecessor to not bring charges.
Huth’s was one of the last leftover legal claims against Cosby after he was freed from prison, and he does not face jail time after this case.