Bill Cosby sued in Nevada by 9 women for alleged sexual assault
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Nine women sued Bill Cosby for alleged sexual assault in a Nevada lawsuit Wednesday, adding to the 85-year-old actor and comedian’s legal troubles after he was released from prison two years ago when a court overturned his criminal assault conviction. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada was made possible by a new state law that lifted the statute of limitations for sexual abuse civil cases involving adults. The women — at least some of whom have previously publicly accused Cosby — allege that between roughly 1979 to 1992, the “Cosby Show” star “used his enormous power, fame, and prestige” to isolate them under a premise of helping them or their careers — then drugged or attempted to drug them before sexually assaulting them, according to the court filing.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post. He told other media outlets in a statement that Cosby’s accusers have an “addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed.”
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“From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts … against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside the courtroom,” Wyatt said.
The case comes two weeks after Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) signed into law SB129, which allows plaintiffs to pursue civil action for sexual abuse cases in the state no matter how long ago they allegedly occurred.
Lise-Lotte Lublin, who accuses Cosby of drugging and assaulting her in his Las Vegas hotel suite around 1989 in the lawsuit, was one of several women who had urged Nevada lawmakers to pass the bill.
Plaintiff Lili Bernard, who guest-starred on “The Cosby Show” and alleges that Cosby raped her in 1990, helped lead a campaign to pass a similar law in California.
Cosby is also facing a separate sexual assault lawsuit in that state, filed in June after the California law passed. The accuser in that suit, former Playboy model Victoria Valentino, said she felt emboldened by journalist E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault case win against former president Donald Trump.
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Another Nevada plaintiff, former model Janice Dickinson, testified in the 2018 Pennsylvania trial against the comedian, accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting her in a Lake Tahoe, Nev., hotel in 1982.
More than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual assault, which allegedly occurred between the mid-1960s and the late 2000s. The actor formerly dubbed “America’s Dad” by fans was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 and sentenced to three to 10 years in a Pennsylvania state prison. He was released in 2021 after the state Supreme Court vacated the sentence, concluding that prosecutors had to honor a former prosecutor’s promise in 2005 not to pursue the criminal charges against Cosby.
Cosby has denied all the allegations. “I have never changed my stance nor my story,” he tweeted the night of his prison release. “I have always maintained my innocence.”
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Source: The Washington Post
