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A Los Angeles jury on Monday found that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted Donna Motsinger, a former server at a Sausalito restaurant who was drugged by the outcast comedian at one of his 1972 comedy shows.
The jury awarded Motsinger $19.25 million in damages at a time when Cosby has been struggling with financial problems stemming from a series of lawsuits filed by women for rape, many of which were filed under state laws that expanded the window to file a lawsuit for sexual assault that allegedly occurred decades ago. You could receive a larger payout depending on whether jurors decide to award punitive damages, intended to punish defendants for particularly egregious misconduct.
The decision is at least the second from a civil court that has held Cosby liable for sexual assault after a California jury found in 2022 that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1975.
According to the complaint, Motsinger met Cosby in her 30s when she was working as a waitress at the then-popular The Trident, where the entertainer regularly frequented. On one occasion, Cosby followed her to her home in Mill Valley and asked to accompany her to his show at the Circle Star Theater.
After Cosby picked her up in a limousine, Cosby gave her a glass of wine, the lawsuit alleged. Once there, Motsinger said she felt ill and was given what she believed was an aspirin. She proceeded to drift in and out of consciousness before waking up in her home with all her clothes on except her underwear.
Cosby, who has maintained in several cases that any sexual encounters were consensual, did not testify at trial. Motsinger was among the anonymous defendants in the 2005 lawsuit filed by former Temple University athletics director Andrea Constand.
Witnesses at the trial included Constand and two other defendants, Janice Baker Kinney and Victoria Valentino. In a separate lawsuit, Valentino accused Cosby of raping her in 1969 after she auditioned for an acting role.
Cosby has served more than two years of a ten-year prison sentence after being found guilty of indecent assault against Constand. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned the conviction due to a non-prosecution agreement with the former prosecutor.
Last year, Cosby was sued for defaulting on a $17.5 million mortgage on his Manhattan home. He has been accused of transferring property to his wife to hide assets.
