Disgraced Comedy Legend Loses in Court—Again

REUTERSBill Cosby, 88, has lost his bid for a new trial in a 19 million sexual assault lawsuit. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Bradley S. Phillips ruled Friday that Cosby did not prove his claim that there was “any irregularity” in the court proceedings that would have prevented him from receiving a fair trial. He also ruled that the 19.25 million in damages awarded to his accuser, Donna Motsinger, were not “excessive.” In March, a civil jury found that Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted the former waitress in 1972, after escorting her to one of his shows. It awarded Motsinger, now 84, the multimillion-dollar settlement, rejecting Cosby’s defense that he was a target of mass vigilantism and had not assaulted her. The case, brought more than 50 years after the incident, was able to go forward because of changes to the law allowing historical victims of sexual assault to bring civil cases against their abusers. Cosby has faced multiple allegations that he drugged and raped women, with New York magazine publishing an exposé involving dozens of women in 2015, after one woman successfully sued him and won in 2014. He also served almost three years in a Pennsylvania prison on sexual assault charges before that case was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021.Read it at The Los Angeles TimesRead more at The Daily Beast.