Former Playboy Model Files Lawsuit Under California's New Law, Accusing Bill Cosby of 1969 Sexual Assault
Bill Cosby is making headlines once again after yet another woman—this time a former Playboy model— came forth with claims that the disgraced actor and stand-up comedian drugged and sexually assaulted her and another woman over five decades ago.
According to the suit filed in a Los Angeles court on Thursday, June 1, the alleged victim, Victoria Valentino, now 80, said the attack took place after she and a friend met the Hollywood star at a restaurant for a meal, the AP reported. The documents were filed under California’s new law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations in sexual assault cases.
Valentino initially met the actor during an audition when she spoke to him in his studio trailer. After the tragic drowning death of her 6-year-old son, Cosby offered his phone number and later sent a vehicle to drive Valentino and a friend to a restaurant on the Sunset Strip.
Documents allege that Cosby gave each victim a pill and later drove the two women to a nearby office, where Valentino later passed out and noticed she was assaulted when she came to.
"Here! Take this!" the lawsuit alleges Cosby said to them. "It will make you feel better. It will make us ALL feel better."
Cosby has denied the accusation claiming that any sexual encounters he had were always consensual. A spokesman for the actor, Andrew Wyatt, said Valentino made her accusations “without any proof or facts” and accused her claim of containing multiple “inconsistencies.”
In 2018, Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand while mentoring at Temple University. He served nearly three years of a three-to-10-year sentence before a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling overturned his conviction under a “non-prosecution agreement” ruling which ultimately led to his release in 2021.