On Wednesday, a civil lawsuit against Bill Cosby by Judy Huth commenced. Huth claims she was sexually assaulted by the comedian in 1975, which would make her just 16 years old at the time. She originally sued Cosby in 2014, but the case was paused while he was being criminally prosecuted for other sexual misconduct allegations.
When Cosby’s 2018 conviction was overturned last year after it was discovered that prosecutors violated his constitutional rights, Huth’s case was allowed to proceed. She alleges the incident took place 47 years ago at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. The trial, which is expected to last around a week or so, is being held at Los Angeles Superior Court’s Santa Monica branch.
Huth said that she and a friend, Donna Samuelson, saw Cosby filming a movie in a park in San Marino. He invited them to the set, then a tennis club and eventually back to the Playboy mansion. Huth asserts that Cosby tried to kiss her as well as put his hands down her pants. He then allegedly “took her hand with his” and forced her to perform a sex act.
“She grabbed her purse and said we are getting out of here,” Samuelson testified in court. “She told me Bill Cosby tried to have sex with her....she told me not to tell anyone. It was embarrassing and humiliating to her.”
Over the years, Cosby has been accused by more than 60 women of sexual misconduct. The actor has always maintained his innocence and it is no different with his latest trial. “We believe that Mr. Cosby will fully be exonerated once the jurors hear the evidence as well as examine the many inconsistent accounts given by Ms. Huth,” his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said in a statement.