A California jury found Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault in a civil trial on Monday, awarding Donna Motsinger $19.25m in damages. Motsinger alleged in the case that while working as a restaurant server in 1972, she was drugged and raped by Cosby after he gave her a glass of wine in his limousine.
Motsinger sued Cosby after California amended its laws to change the statutes of limitations on when accusers can file sexual assault cases. In remarks after the jury’s verdict, she described the trial as a five-decade-long effort to get justice.
Cosby, once one of the most successful men in comedy and an entertainment icon, has largely disappeared from public view in the past decade amid widespread allegations of sexual misconduct. In addition to the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of drugging and sexual assault, he has faced a series of civil trials – including Los Angeles county jurors in 2022 finding that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy mansion in 1975.
Cosby spent three years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault in 2018, but was released in 2021 after a higher court reversed the decision. The higher court found that prosecutors had violated Cosby’s rights by promising not to charge him and then later pursuing a case against him.
A lawyer for Cosby stated that he plans to appeal Monday’s verdict.