Bill Cosby Accused by 5 Women in New Sexual Assault Case

The state of New York passed a new law last month allowing survivors of sexual abuse to sue their attackers after the statute of limitations is up, and one of the first cases has targeted Bill Cosby. The disgraced comedian has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women, but most of the allegations were outside the statute of limitations. Now, five women – including two actresses who worked on The Cosby Show – will have their day in court.

The new lawsuit was obtained by reporters from CNN and is 34 pages long. Its plaintiffs include actresses Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl, as well as Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd. All say that they were abused by Cosby during the production of The Cosby Show, so they are suing not only Cosby personally but NBCUniversal Media, Kaufman Astoria Studios and The Carsey-Werner Company. The suit accuses Cosby of assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment, while it accuses the media companies of negligence.

Cosby has denied these allegations through his spokesperson Andrew Wyatt, who called the whole lawsuit "frivolous." Wyatt said: "As we have always stated and now America see [sic] that this isn't about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault but it's ALL ABOUT MONEY. We believe that the courts as well as the court of public opinion will follow the rules of law and relieve Mr. Cosby of these alleged accusations. Mr. Cosby continues to vehemently deny all allegation [sic] waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court."

Some of these alleged victims have spoken out publicly before. According to the suit, Bernard accuses Cosby of sexually assaulting her at his Manhattan home in 1991, as well as two other incidents outside of the state. Tirl claims that Cosby touched her inappropriately in a dressing room in 1989, and that he threatened her by saying he "owned" NBC. Gittens claims that Cosby invited her to his home with to discuss casting her on The Cosby Show but that he drugged her and sexually assaulted her instead. Thompson claims that Cosby intimidated her into sexual acts in 1988 when she was 18 years old, and finally Ladd claims that Cosby drugged her and sexually assaulted her in 1969.

This lawsuit was made possible by the Adult Survivors Act, which passed in New York last month. It provides a one-year window for survivors of sexual abuse to file a case regardless of when the alleged attacks took place. New York has used this method before – in 2019 it passed the Child Victims Act which led to about 10,600 new lawsuits, including one of the most prominent cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew. It's unclear when the case against Cosby will move forward.