US jury finds Bill Cosby sexually assaulted teen in 1970s
Bill Cosby sexually assaulted a teenager at the Playboy Mansion almost 50 years ago, a jury in California found Tuesday, in the first civil ruling against the veteran entertainer following dozens of allegations.
Judy Huth, now aged 64, was awarded $500,000 in damages after the jury in Santa Monica determined that Cosby had molested her in 1975 when she was just 16 years old after meeting her on a movie set and plying her with alcohol.
The case is the only successful legal action against Cosby, 84, who has been accused of using his fame to prey on women over several decades.
The man formerly known as "America's Dad" was jailed in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a woman in a separate criminal case in 2018, but was freed last year when his conviction was overturned on a technicality.
Over a two-week civil hearing, which Cosby did not attend, lawyers said he escorted Huth and her then-17-year-old friend, Donna Samuelson, to Hugh Hefner's mansion after meeting them on a movie set.
The jury heard how when Huth was alone with Cosby, the actor began kissing her and tried to put his hands inside her clothes.
They were told how he then allegedly pulled down his own trousers and forced her to perform a sex act on him.
Lawyer Nathan Goldberg said for many years Huth had repressed memories of the assault but that it came to the fore for her when other women began accusing him of assaulting them.
