The jury in the civil suit against Bill Cosby concluded Tuesday that the comedian and actor sexually abused a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy mansion. in 1975.
The Los Angeles County jury deliberated and returned the verdict in favor of Judy Huth, who is now 64 years old, awarding her $500,000.
The jury concluded that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Huth, which he reasonably believed that she was under the age of 18, and that her conduct was prompted by an abnormal sexual interest in a minor.
The jury’s decision is a major legal defeat for the 84-year-old entertainer who was once dubbed “America’s Dad.” It comes nearly a year after his Pennsylvania criminal conviction for sexual assault was overturned and he was released from prison. Huth’s lawsuit was one of the last pending against Cosby after his insurer reached multiple legal settlements with other alleged victims against Cosby’s will.
Cosby did not attend the trial or testify in person, but short videos of a statement he gave in 2015 were presented to the jury., in which he denied having had sexual contact with Huth. Cosby continues to deny the allegations through her attorney and publicist.
Huth initially filed her lawsuit alleging sexual assault and infliction of emotional distress in 2014, just as allegations against Cosby from other women began to surface.
“Memories surfaced (…) I was overwhelmed with memories of Mr. Cosby and what he had done”, according to Goldberg.
Cosby was the first celebrity jailed for sexual assault during the global #MeToo movement. That conviction was technically thrown out last June, however, and a judge ruled that Huth’s civil case could proceed.
Huth’s defender said that two other women allegedly assaulted in 1975 by Cosby they would give their testimony at trial, and pointed out similarities in how Cosby had used his fame to meet teenagers.
“He meets them under circumstances that do not seem threatening (…), he takes them to places where they do not feel threatened (…) In each case his intention to have sex without consent,” Goldberg described.
once, Cosby was a distinguished figure in 20th-century American popular culture, achieving success as the affable obstetrician and father Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.”which aired from 1984 to 1992.
But nearly 60 women, many of them aspiring actresses and models, have publicly called Cosby a calculating serial predator who supplied his victims with sedatives and bed-wetting alcohol for four decades.
(With information from AP and AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com