adminLOS ANGELES. – Less than a year after his sex assault conviction was thrown out and he walked free from prison, comedian Bill Cosby is facing another allegation in court.
Mr Cosby, 85, is embroiled in a civil lawsuit over a claim he sexually assaulted Judy Huth, now 64, at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975.
The case is one of the last remaining legal actions against Mr Cosby, who has faced numerous abuse claims. He has denied any assault took place, and is not expected to testify.
According to a lawsuit filed by Ms Huth in 2014, the incident took place when she was 16 years old, days after she met Mr Cosby at a park near Los Angeles where he was shooting a film.
After giving her alcohol “as part of a game”, Mr Cosby took her to the Playboy Mansion, she says.
There, Ms Huth claims Mr Cosby took her to a bedroom and forced her to perform a sex act.
During opening statements at the court in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday, a lawyer for Ms Huth said the comedian “has a sense of entitlement, and no fear”.
Nathan Goldberg said Mr Cosby had “pounced” on his client and she suffered from serious anxiety after the incident.
When other women came forward with stories of their abuse at the hands of Mr Cosby, “it was like a cork popped out of the bottle and all of her buried feelings rushed to the surface”, Mr Goldberg added.
While Mr Cosby’s attorneys have acknowledged he met Ms Huth and went to the Playboy Mansion with her, they deny any assault took place. They also claim Ms Huth was 18, not 16.
They also question why the accuser stayed on for hours at the mansion after the alleged incident, watching a film and swimming in the pool.
Defence lawyer Jennifer Bonjean dismissed Ms Huth’s case as a “fabrication”, questioning why she and a friend had preserved photos from the visit as “mementos” of an alleged sexual assault.
Mr Cosby is not required to attend the court proceedings, and is not expected to do so. His attorneys have previously said he has gone blind as a result of glaucoma. He did, however, give a video deposition.
Once known to millions as “America’s Dad”, Mr Cosby has faced dozens of accusations of sexual assault, misconduct and rape stretching back to the mid-1960s.
In 2018, he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman at his home in 2004 and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.
The conviction, however, was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year. He was released from prison after serving nearly three years. – BBC
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter