A Santa Monica jury has ordered former comedian and actor Bill Cosby to pay $19.25 million in damages to a woman who accused him of drvgging and s3xually as.saulting her more than 50 years ago
The civil verdict in California found Cosby liable for a 1972 incident involving Donna Motsinger, now 84, marking a significant development in the long-running legal battles against the entertainer.
Motsinger testified that she first met Cosby while working at the Trident restaurant, a popular celebrity hotspot at the time. She claimed that Cosby later picked her up in a limousine, offered her wine and a pill she believed was aspirin, and took her to one of his shows.
Court filings indicated that the substance rendered her incapacitated, and she recalled only brief flashes of memory before losing consciousness. She said she later awoke at home partially undressed, concluding that she had been drvgged and se.xually as.saulted.
Cosby, now 88, has denied the allegations, as well as similar claims made by dozens of other women over the years.
His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, stated that the decision would be appealed, noting that Motsinger had acknowledged uncertainty about some details of the incident.
Over the decades, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of misconduct, alleging a pattern of using drvgs and alcohol to facilitate as.saults.
While Cosby was convicted in a separate criminal case in 2018, that conviction was overturned in 2021, leaving civil cases like this one as a key avenue for legal accountability.
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