Bill Cosby accused of sexual abuse in new lawsuit filed by ‘The Cosby Show’ stand-in
Bill Cosby is facing more legal backlash as another woman sues the star of “The Cosby Show” for allegedly drugging and sexually abusing her in 1980s.
Cosby, who was freed from prison in 2021 on a technicality, is once again at the center of multiple sexual misconduct lawsuits, filed before New York’s Adult Survivors Act expires Friday. The law, which took effect on Nov. 24, 2022, opened a one-year “lookback window” during which adults who allege they were abused could sue despite the statute of limitations having run out.
In her lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York’s state Supreme Court, the anonymous accuser said she met Cosby while working on his show as a stand-in and that he offered tips and engaged in acting exercises with her in his dressing room. The woman said Cosby acted as a mentor and invited her to his home. Once in the actor’s home, the woman said she blacked out after drinking wine allegedly laced with an intoxicant. The lawsuit says Cosby’s accuser woke up “partially undressed and vomiting into a toilet.”
Former Playboy model Victoria Valentino has accused Bill Cosby in a lawsuit of drugging and raping her in his office in 1969.
Cosby’s anonymous accuser is seeking damages for battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.
In a statement to The Times on Wednesday, Cosby representative Andrew Wyatt did not comment on the latest lawsuit, but said that lookback windows “are being abused to go after successful, wealthy men.”
The lawsuit also accuses Kaufman Astoria Studios, the Carsey-Werner Co. and NBCUniversal of negligence related to Cosby’s alleged behavior. NBCUniversal declined to comment Wednesday. Representatives for the other two companies did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
A yearlong suspension of the legal time limit to sue over sexual assaults against adults in New York has led to a tidal wave of claims.
Tuesday’s lawsuit was filed less than a week after writer Joan Tarshis sued Cosby for sexual assault that allegedly occurred more than 50 years ago. In 2014, Tarshis publicly accused Cosby of assault, rape and drugging her during the late ‘60s to early ‘70s when she was an aspiring comedy writer. The allegations raised in the recent lawsuits echo those previously raised by more than 60 women.
In September 2018, Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for the sexual assault of Andrea Constand after confidentially settling a previous civil suit with her. Three years later, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s sexual assault conviction due to a “non-prosecution” agreement the comedian had made with the former Montgomery County, Pa., district attorney.
An attorney who has represented dozens of sex assault survivors said the Pennsylvania court’s decision may discourage victims from coming forward.
Cosby is among a number of high-profile men facing lawsuits as the New York Adult Survivors Act nears its expiration. Earlier this month, music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was accused of rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking by singer and former partner Cassie. The two parties reached a settlement just a day after the incendiary lawsuit was filed.
Guns N’ Roses co-founder Axl Rose, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and former Grammys chief Neil Portnow are all facing separate sexual misconduct lawsuits filed in New York.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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