Jury orders Bill Cosby to pay $59M in 1972 sexual assault case 0%
By Addie Davis0%
3/23/2026, 6:43:54 PM
Keywords: 19 Million, Allegations, Appeal, Bill Cosby, California Law, Civil Trial, Denial Of Allegations, Donna Motsinger, Drugging, Judy Huth Case, Jury Verdict, Lawsuit, Limousine Incident, Loss Of Consciousness, Multiple Allegations, Overturned Conviction, Panish Shea Ravipudi Llp, Punitive Damages, Rape Accusation, Sausalito California, Sexual Assault Case, Statute Of Limitations
BS Summary: This article contains 5 faulty reasoning types, including Genetic Fallacy, Biased Writer Voice, and Appeal to Emotion, with Availability Heuristic as the most egregious example at 11.2% saturation with 57 hits. Analysis detected 201 faulty-reasoning hits from 507 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 0% and a BS Rank of 0% (0 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 100.00% of the article peer group.
Actor and comedian Bill Cosby returns to the courtroom after a break with his spokesman Andrew Wyatt at the Montgomery County Courthouse, during his sexual assault trial sentencing in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
September 24, 2018.
(Photo by David Maialetti-Pool/Getty Images)
A California jury awarded a woman named Donna Motsinger millions on Monday after finding Bill Cosby liable for a 1972 sexual assault.
Motsinger is currently 84 years old.
At the time of the assault in 1972, she was in her 30s and working as a restaurant server in Sausalito, California.
The jury found the 88-year-old comedian liable for drugging and sexually assaulting Motsinger in 1972.
They initially awarded her $19.25 million, $17.5 million for past suffering and $1.75 million for future emotional distress.
However, just hours later, following a second phase of deliberations to determine if Cosby acted with “malice,” the jury added an additional $40 million in punitive damages, bringing the total to $59.25 million.
In the complaint, filed in 2023, a copy of which was provided by Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, the law firm representing her, Motsinger had alleged that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1972.
According to the suit, Cosby went to the restaurant where Motsinger worked in Sausalito, California, every day for a week.
While Motsinger was returning home, Cosby followed and pulled up next to her, inviting her to a show he was performing.
He later picked her up from her house in a limousine and gave her a glass of wine.
Upon arriving to the theater, she began to feel sick and Cosby gave her what she believed to be aspirin.
However, she quickly lost consciousness, later waking up at home in her underwear — unaware how she got there.
“She [then] knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby,” the suit said.
Cosby has faced a plethora of sexual assault allegations in recent years, and he served three years in prison on a sexual assault charge until the conviction was overturned in 2021 for procedural reasons, according to the NYT.
In a subsequent separate civil trial, the jury found him liable for sexually abusing then-16-year-old Judy Huth in 1975.
NYT notes that California, along with other states, have changed laws regarding the statute of limitations in sexual assault suits, increasing the time accusers have to come forward, which allowed Motsinger to file her case.
“It has been 54 years to get justice, and I know it’s not complete for the rest of the women, but i hope it helps them a little bit,” she said at the courthouse.
The outlet reported that Cosby did not testify at the trial and that his lawyer said they will be pursuing an appeal.
Cosby has denied all allegations, and he argues that in every case, all sexual encounters were consensual.
In the deposition, Cosby noted that he remembered being in the limo with Motsinger, but he could not recall if they had sex or not, according to NYT.
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