Bill Cosby is being sued by Victoria Valentino in a new civil lawsuit claiming decades-old allegations of sexual assault.
via: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Valentino, 80, filed the case in Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday in accordance with a new law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for civil cases related to sexual assault. The law, which expires at the end of this year, allows people alleging they were assaulted as adults to file civil lawsuits no matter when then the attack happened.
“The trauma he inflicted upon me affects not only me, but my children and grandchildren,” Valentino said. “By breaking my silence and speaking my truth, I hope this serves as my legacy to my family, and shows those survivors who have yet to find their voices, that hope and healing are possible.”
In 2018, Cosby, 85, was convicted in Montgomery County Court of sexually assaulting former Temple University basketball coach Andrea Constand in 2004. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in that case, but was released after nearly three years when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2021.
Valentino is suing Cosby for sexual assault and sexual battery. The suit is seeking unspecified general, special, and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and court costs. The suit also targets up to 20 unnamed defendants, including agents and other employees who she alleges enabled Cosby.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesperson, discounted Valentino’s allegations in a statement, saying that she “has skirted from town to town promoting her alleged allegations against Mr. Cosby to anyone that would give her platform, without any proof of facts.” He also took issue with California’s so-called lookback window laws, saying that such laws were “brought to life because our political figures are being driven by click-baiters, likes and followers, in order to excel to their political aspirations.”
“What graveyard can Mr. Cosby visit, in order to dig up potential witnesses to testify on his behalf?” Wyatt said. “America is continuing to see that this a formula to make sure that no more Black Men in America accumulate the American Dream that was secured by Mr. Cosby.”
In her lawsuit, Valentino alleges that she first met Cosby at an audition in 1969. After meeting him, Valentino told the comedian of her 6-year-old son, who had recently died in a drowning.
Cosby and Valentino, the suit said, met again by chance at a Los Angeles cafe. Valentino was out to dinner with a friend, who is not named in the lawsuit, and was still mourning her son’s death. Cosby, the suit said, conversed with Valentino’s friend, while Valentino herself “continued to sob over the tragic loss of her only son.”
The comedian then allegedly offered to pay for a treatment at a nearby Finnish spa for Valentino and her friend, and a chauffeur later took the pair to a Los Angeles steak house for dinner. Cosby was there and allegedly offered the women pills during the meal.
“Here! Take this! It will make you feel better. It will make us ALL feel better,” Cosby said, according to the suit.
The lawsuit claims that Cosby deceived the women by pretending to take one of the pills himself, giving Valentino and her friend the impression “that the pill was safe to ingest.” Valentino took a pill, and Cosby later allegedly put another one in her mouth and her friend’s mouth.
Valentino began to feel nauseated and “struggled to keep her head up and stay awake,” the lawsuit states.
Cosby allegedly offered to drive the women home, but began driving them “in the opposite direction.” They eventually arrived at an office, where Cosby offered to “show them his awards,” according to the lawsuit.
After entering the office, Valentino and her friend passed out on a couch. Valentino awoke to to see Cosby allegedly staring at her friend “with a predatory intensity” and said he had an erection.
She attempted to get his attention because, the lawsuit says, she “knew Cosby was about to assault her friend.” Cosby allegedly became angry at Valentino’s “efforts to thwart his assault” on the woman, and approached her instead.
Cosby then allegedly raped Valentino, and forced her to perform oral sex on him. After, the suit said, Cosby told Valentino and her friend to “call a cab,” and left.
“For decades, Mr. Cosby played the roles of both Jekyll and Hyde — Jekyll as a gentleman and Hyde as a predator masquerading as a gentleman in plain sight,” Valentino’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, said. “He has left an immeasurable trail of pain, trauma and suffering in his wake, but today we are holding him accountable for his actions.”
Valentino told the Washington Post she felt encouraged to file her lawsuit against Cosby after a New York civil jury found former President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing journalist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 in May. The outcome of that case “was affirmation we were doing the right thing,” Valentino said.
At least 60 women have accused the entertainer of sexual assault, harassment, or rape. Most recently, last year, Cosby was found liable in a civil case in Santa Monica in which a jury found he sexually assaulted Judy Huth when she was a minor in the mid-’70s.
After Cosby’s case was overturned in 2021, Valentino told The Inquirer the ruling was the latest in a string of failures in the American justice system to protect women.
“We turn pain on ourselves because we don’t have anyone else to help us,” Valentino said. “We need to put the legal system on notice.”
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