Bill Cosby Found Guilty Of Sexual Battery In Civil Trial
On Tuesday (June 21), a Los Angeles jury found Bill Cosby guilty in a civil trial filed by plaintiff Judy Huth, who claimed he sexually assaulted her as a teenager in the 1970s.
According to CNN, a jury of eight women and four men found the embattled comedian is liable for damages and awarded Huth $500,000 in damages. Punitive compensation was not awarded.
Huth’s case was initially filed in 2014 and claimed sexual battery and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. That filing claimed that the incident happened in 1974 when Huth was 15 years old, but the timeline was later revised to a year later when she was 16.
After denying the claim, Cosby’s lawyers attempted to get the case dismissed.
Huth’s complaint details meeting the now-84-year-old at a park where he was filming a movie. After befriending the girls, he allegedly invited them to join him at his tennis club. From there, she alleged Cosby invited them to a house where he served the young women multiple alcoholic drinks, and then took them to the Playboy Mansion.
After alleging Cosby instructed the young women to lie about their age, Huth says he took her to a bedroom in the mansion where he sexually molested her.
This is the first civil case by any Cosby accuser to make it to trial.
