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Legendary American comedian, actor, and media mogul Bill Cosby is once again back in the news, and for all kinds of wrong reasons. Turns out, as many as nine women have sued him for a series of s*xual assaults and filed a lawsuit against him at the U.S. District Court of Nevada.
This move comes weeks after the state of Nevada passed a law removing the statute of two-year limitations for civil cases such as s*xual assaults.
As per reports, the lawsuit accuses Bill Cosby of exploiting his “enormous power, fame, and prestige” to s*xually abuse all these nine women by manipulation and isolation. The victims are Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Janice Baker-Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta, and Angela Leslie.
Cosby’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt has, however, denied all allegations. He even went on to accuse the women of deriving their motivation from “addition to massive amounts of media attention and greed.”
Bill Cosby allegedly m*lested nine women between 1979 and 1992
All the nine women who have accused Bill Cosby of s*xual assault, abuse, and battery have claimed that the incidents happened in either Las Vegas hotels or Cosby’s home between 1979 and 1992. Each of them has also said that they were “drugged or attempted to drug.”
The women’s attorneys have stated that Bill Cosby was guilty of all charges and had even admitted to possession of drugs. He had also reportedly confessed to using the said drugs on women “with whom he wanted to engage in s*x” during a deposition.
The lawsuit mentions each of the assaults in detail. For instance, in the case of plaintiff Lise-Lotte Lublin, in 1989, Cosby met her during an acting mentorship programme and offered her two beverages, and ordered Lublin to drink them, “to help her relax and improvise more effectively.”
But soon after, Lublin began to feel dizzy and was unable to move on her own. This is when Cosby allegedly performed all kinds of s*xual acts with her, including intercourse, without her consent, and against her will.
Just like Lublin, Heidi Thomas too met Bill Cosby for a mentoring session in Reno in 1984. Despite telling Cosby that she was not a drinker, he forced her under the pretence that it will help her practise a scene. Soon after, she blacked out. In fact, she was in and out of her senses for days at a stretch, during which Cosby r*ped her more than once.
As for Lili Bernard, she met Cosby in 1990 during a meeting in a Vegas hotel suite. She too was instructed by the comedian to drink what he claimed to be a non-alcoholic sparkling cider, to commemorate her bright future as an actress.
However, soon after, not only did she lose her senses, but also found herself naked on the bed, with Cosby trying to m*lest her from the back when she awoke. Despite protests and cries for help, Bill Cosby allegedly refused to stop, “placed a pillow over her face, preventing Mrs. Bernard from breathing” and then assaulted her.
It was in the same year that Cosby also targeted model Janice Dickinson in northern Nevada. They were both at dinner when the latter complained of menstrual cramps. Cosby pretended to give her a pill to ease her discomfort. But soon, Janice was disoriented and later found herself being s*xually assaulted in his hotel suite. Cosby even ignored all her pleas to stop the gruesome acts.
Rebecca Cooper and Bill Cosby met at a Las Vegas health club in 1980. The latter invited the former for dinner where she was served a drink by him. While she voluntarily had that, it wasn’t long before she found herself in Cosby’s dressing room, with him trying to m*lest her despite her repeated objections.
Another plaintiff named Linda Kirkpatrick came face to face with Bill Cosby backstage during a show in 1981. She too was offered a drink, which she drank of her own volition. However, little did she know that she would lose her consciousness.
As soon as she was back to her senses, she realised she was in the perpetrator’s dressing room, being m*lested. She failed to resist as the effects of alcohol made her temporarily incapacitated.
It was in the late 1980s or early 1990s that Bill Cosby invited Angela Leslie to his Las Vegas hotel suite. Initially, Cosby was coaching her on acting, but he soon offered her a drink that rendered her intoxicated and dizzy. Cosby m*lested Leslie but the latter somehow managed to flee.
Perhaps one of Cosby’s first victims was Pam Joy Abeyta, whom he met in 1979. Cosby drugged her during dinner, took her to a hotel suite, and forced himself on her.
Judy Huth too was a 16-year-old when Bill Cosby abused her s*xually in 1975. Recently, a jury convicted him and paid the victim a compensation of 500000 US dollars.
Till date, nearly 60 women have accused the now 85-year-old Cosby of all sorts of s*xual abuse. But he has maintained his “not guilty” stand.
Besides this recent lawsuit, last month itself, a woman named Victoria Valentino sued Cosby for assaulting her decades back, in 1969.
Earlier, in 2018, Bill Cosby was convicted of “aggravated indecent assault” against Andrea Constand and spent three years in prison, until he was released in June 2021 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stating that his 5th Amendment and 14th Amendment were violated.
