USA: Civil lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual abuse US: Civil lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual abuse

Two years after Bill Cosby’s release from prison, another woman is taking her allegations of sexual abuse against the American comedian to court. Victoria Valentino, 80, filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles on Thursday (local time), US media reported. The former ‘Playboy’ model describes an alleged attack by Cosby in 1969.

Cosby gave her and a friend pills when they went to a restaurant and drugged them. The – now 85-year-old – entertainer then drove the women to his office, where he raped them, Valentino claims. A new California law allows sexual assault lawsuits to be filed without a statute of limitations. The woman is claiming damages of an undisclosed amount.

Valentino’s allegations contain no facts or evidence, Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt told CNN. There are also contradictions in the woman’s numerous claims. Valentino first made accusations against the former sitcom superstar (“The Bill Cosby Show”) in interviews in 2014.

More than 60 women have accused Cosby of various forms of sexual assault in recent years. The entertainer always denied the allegations.

The comedian was sentenced in 2018 to a minimum of three and a maximum of ten years in prison for sexual assault in a criminal case. The case involved a single case from 2004. The jury found evidence that Cosby rendered a woman helpless with pills and then sexually assaulted her.

Surprisingly, after Cosby had been in prison for about three years, the highest court in the US state of Pennsylvania in June 2021 overturned his conviction for a procedural error and the actor was released.

Cosby, once considered America’s poster child, continued to face civil lawsuits afterwards. Last June, a Los Angeles jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 1975 and awarded the prosecutor $500,000. The attack took place at the villa of “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner, better known as the “Playboy Mansion”. (saw/sda/dpa)