Exactly one year ago today, on June 20, 2022, the Santa Monica jury assigned to the lawsuit filed by a woman from Riverside County, accusing comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault at the Playboy Mansion in the 1970s when she was a teenager, gathered for a full day of deliberations without reaching a verdict. The panel, which now includes a new panelist, will reconvene on Tuesday morning to continue their deliberations. However, before they resume, the attorneys will present arguments regarding the interpretation of legal terminology in one of the nine questions they are addressing.
After nearly two full days of deliberations, the jury announced on late Friday that they had reached verdicts on most of the questions, except for the one concerning possible punitive damages. Due to time constraints, Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan was unable to read the partial verdicts before the courthouse closed for the day. One of the jurors had a prior commitment and would be leaving after Friday, so Karlan decided to honor his previous promise and allowed the juror to be dismissed. Consequently, an alternate juror was brought in to replace the departing juror, and the panel began deliberations anew on Monday morning.
Throughout the nearly two-week trial, lawyers representing Judy Huth, a 64-year-old resident of Canyon Lake, have accused the 84-year-old Cosby, who is legally blind, of assaulting her in a game room at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was only 16. According to the attorneys, Cosby accompanied Huth and her 17-year-old friend Donna Samuelson to the mansion after meeting them while filming the movie “Let’s Do It Again” with Jimmie Walker and Sidney Poitier in the area.
This case marks the first civil trial against Cosby for sexual abuse to be presented to a jury.
Cosby’s defense attorneys have consistently denied any wrongdoing by the comedian and have attempted to cast doubt on Huth’s account of the events. They particularly highlighted the fact that Huth and Samuelson spent several more hours at the Playboy Mansion following the alleged assault. Additionally, they argued that Huth initially claimed the attack took place in 1974 when she was 15, but later changed her story to state that it occurred a year later.
Huth eventually reported her allegations to the Los Angeles Police Department, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to press criminal charges due to the expired statute of limitations. However, Huth was able to file the civil lawsuit under a California law permitting adults who repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse to pursue legal action.
In a previous retrial in Pennsylvania, Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, an employee of Temple University. He received a 10-year prison sentence in 2018, which was later overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in June of last year after discovering that Cosby had struck a nonprosecution agreement with a previous prosecutor. The request to review the state Supreme Court decision was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in March of this year, causing the criminal case to be put on hold.
According to Huth, she, Samuelson, and Cosby visited a game room at the Playboy Mansion that had a connecting bedroom. Samuelson even captured a photo of Huth and Cosby together in the room, which was presented as evidence repeatedly during the trial.
Huth alleges that while she was alone with Cosby, he initiated unwanted sexual advances, including kissing her and attempting to engage in further sexual activity. Her attorney, Nathan Goldberg, posited that Huth repressed these memories until other women began speaking out against Cosby in 2014. Huth filed her lawsuit against Cosby in December of that year.
During the trial, the jury watched a videotaped deposition from 2015 in which Cosby denied assaulting Huth, claimed he did not remember meeting her, and vehemently denied engaging in sexual activity with an underage girl.
Countering the defense’s argument that Huth and Samuelson remained at the mansion after the alleged assault, Goldberg insisted that Huth was visibly upset and wanted to leave, but Samuelson managed to persuade her to stay, suggesting that going for a swim would help alleviate her distress. Samuelson testified that Huth was indeed upset and crying, but she decided against involving the police.
In her lawsuit, Huth is seeking unspecified damages.
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