A civil jury in California found Monday that Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a woman in 1972 and awarded her $19.25 million in damages, delivering another major legal setback for the once‑celebrated entertainer.
After a nearly two‑week trial in Santa Monica, jurors found the 88‑year‑old Cosby liable for the sexual battery and assault of Donna Motsinger. The panel deliberated for just over a day before reaching its verdict.
Jurors awarded $17.5 million in past damages and $1.75 million in future damages, covering mental suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, grief, anxiety and humiliation. A separate punitive‑damages phase of the trial is scheduled to begin later.
Defense plans to appeal
Cosby’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said in an email that the defense was disappointed by the verdict and intends to appeal.
In court filings and arguments, Cosby’s lawyers said Motsinger’s claims relied on speculation and assumption, arguing she had no direct memory of the alleged assault and that any encounter, if it occurred, was consensual. Cosby did not testify at the trial.
Allegations date back more than 50 years
Motsinger, who had been a server at a restaurant in Sausalito near San Francisco, said Cosby invited her to one of his stand‑up comedy shows at a theater in nearby San Carlos in 1972. Both were in their 30s at the time.
In her lawsuit, filed in 2023, Motsinger said Cosby gave her wine and two pills she believed were aspirin. She said she began losing consciousness and remembered flashes of light as two men placed her in a limousine.
She later awoke at her home partially undressed, the lawsuit said, believing she had been drugged and raped. Motsinger has said the incident caused decades of emotional trauma.
Part of broader legal reckoning
The verdict came nearly five years after Cosby was released from prison in Pennsylvania, where he had been serving a sentence for a 2018 criminal conviction involving Andrea Constand, a former Temple University sports administrator.
That conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled that Cosby’s due‑process rights were violated because he gave incriminating deposition testimony only after believing he had immunity from prosecution.
Constand testified as a witness in the California civil trial. Motsinger had previously made her allegations anonymously in a 2005 lawsuit filed by Constand.
History of civil verdicts against Cosby
In 2022, a jury in Santa Monica awarded $500,000 to Judy Huth, who said Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.
Motsinger’s lawsuit echoed allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment made by at least 60 women against Cosby over several decades. Cosby has consistently denied all allegations of nonconsensual behavior.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly and consent to be identified. Both Constand and Motsinger have done so.
Cosby, once widely known as “America’s Dad” for his television and stand‑up career, became the first major celebrity convicted in the #MeToo era, even though that conviction was later overturned.
This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.
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