Bill Cosby Is Back in Court Facing Sex Abuse Allegations

Bill Cosby will be represented in court again over sexual assault allegations, 11 months after he was freed from prison in Pennsylvania. The new case is a civil lawsuit stemming from a 1975 allegation. Judy Huth, 64, claims she was sexually assaulted by Cosby at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles when she was 16 years old.

Opening statements will be given on Wednesday at a Santa Monica courthouse and the trial is expected to last about two weeks. Cosby, 85, is not required to attend the trial, reports the Associated Press. His representatives said he is blind because of glaucoma. He already filmed a video deposition and will not have to give a second. The judge already decided that Cosby can use his Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate because he could still be prosecuted in California and other jurisdictions.

Hutch claims she and a friend met Cosby when he was filming the movie Let's Do It Again. A few days later, he took her to the Playboy Mansion and gave her alcohol to drink as "part of a game." Cosby allegedly took Huth to a bedroom where he kissed her on the mouth, put his hands down her pants, and used her hand to perform a sex act. Huth filed her civil lawsuit in 2014, but it took eight years to go to trial because of Cosby's two criminal trials in Pennsylvania and pandemic-related delays. Hutch filed a police report, but no criminal charges were filed against Cosby. Huth and her friend are expected to testify.

Cosby's lawyers agree that he met Huth and took her to the Playboy Mansion since a photo of the two makes that difficult to deny. However, they said no assault took place and claim Huth was 18, not 16, when she met the comedian. Cosby's team has not said what evidence they have to back this up.

The biggest hurdle both sides face is the fact that Huth is accusing Cosby of an assault that allegedly happened almost 50 years ago. Many in the Playboy Mansion orbit who could have testified are dead. Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner died in 2017, but he did give a deposition in the case. A Playboy Enterprises lawyer also said there are no visitor logs for the mansion from 1975, reports the AP.

Cosby's attorneys also accused Huth's team of a last-minute "ambush" when Huth's story changed. At first, she thought she met Cosby in 1973 or 1974 when she was 15. Her team discovered that they did not meet until 1975 after they found a dated photo of Cosby with a beard she remembered him having. Cosby's attorneys asked for a delay in the trial, but the judge refused to do so. He allowed for a new last-minute deposition of the accuser.

Although dozens of women accused Cosby of sexual misconduct or harassment, many of the statutes of limitation in those cases have expired. The only allegations that have resulted in criminal charges so far came from Andrea Constand, who accused Cosby of assaulting her in 2004. After Cosby and Constand settled a civil lawsuit, criminal charges were filed against Cosby in December 2015. The 2017 trial ended in a mistrial, but the second trial in 2018 ended with Cosby's conviction. In June 2021, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated Cosby's conviction, citing a 2005 announcement from a previous district attorney that Cosby would not be prosecuted in the case. 

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.