Bill Cosby prosecuted again over sexual assault allegations

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Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

Bill Cosby is again facing charges of sexual assault and assault. On Monday, five women filed a lawsuit in New York state court charging Cosby with assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. The lawsuit also accuses NBCUniversal Media, Kaufman Astoria Studios and the Carsey-Werner Company, which together ran The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992, of negligence and complicity in Cosbys’ behavior, according to Axios.

Actresses Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl, who appeared on The Cosby Show, along with Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd allege that Cosby either raped them or forced them to perform sex acts between 1969 and 1990, per CNN. Bernard, Tirl, Ladd and Thompson have previously spoken about their interactions with Cosby, who was accused of assaulting more than 50 women, often after drugging them.

Monday’s lawsuit claims that Cosby used his power, fame and prestige, including the power, fame and prestige bestowed on him by defendants NBCUniversal Media, LLC; Kaufman Astoria Studios, Inc.; and the Carsey-Werner Company, LLC, to abuse its enormous power in such a nefarious and gruesome way, ABC reports.

The allegations are similar to others Cosby has faced over the years. Between 2014 and 2016, more than 50 women accused the actor of drugging and assaulting them. Cosby was convicted of the sexual assault of Andrea Constand in 2018 and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but he was released in 2021 when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction on a legal technicality, saying that his due process rights had been violated.

The lawsuit was filed under New Yorks Adult Survivors Act, which took effect on Thanksgiving Day and gives adult survivors of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their attackers even if the statute of limitations for their claims expired.

The new lawsuit alleges that Cosby drugged and raped Bernard in August 1990 after he planned a meeting under the false pretense that he wanted to help him with his career. The lawsuit also alleges that in 1989, Tirl declined invitations to Cosby’s locker room when she appeared on The Cosby Show as a police officer, but was told to go through an employee of the show; when she arrived, Cosby touched her inappropriately without her consent. The suit alleges that Cosby told Tirl that he owned NBC.

Gittens claims that Cosby invited her to his Manhattan home in 1989 or 1990 to talk about working on The Cosby Show, but instead drugged and sexually assaulted her. Thompson alleges that Cosby forced her to touch him inappropriately without his consent in his Manhattan home in 1988, when she was 18. Ladd alleges that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969.

According to Variety, Cosbys spokesman Andrew Wyatt called the lawsuit frivolous and said the women were part of a parade of accusers who came forward between 2014 and 2016.

This is not about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault. It’s ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, Wyatt said, per Variety. We believe that the courts, as well as the court of public opinion, will follow the rule of law and clear Mr. Cosby of these alleged charges. Mr. Cosby continues to vehemently deny all the allegations against him and is eager to defend himself in court.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury found Cosby liable in a civil case brought by Judy Huth, a woman who said she sexually assaulted her as a teenager in the 1970s.

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