A California civil jury found in favor of a plaintiff who claimed that Bill Cosby drugged and raped her over 50 years ago.
In her lawsuit, Donna Motsinger claimed that Cosby assaulted her in San Carlos, California in 1972. The lawsuit claims Cosby invited Motsinger to the taping of his “Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby” album, saying the comedian gave her wine and two pills she thought were aspirin.
“She was going in and out of consciousness,” the lawsuit reads. “The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light. She woke up in her house. with all her clothes off, except her underwear on – no top, no bra, and no pants. She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”
Per Rolling Stone, Motsinger’s lawyer played a deposition in which Cosby admitted to drugging women with Quaaludes, a discontinued sedative.
Still, Cosby denied Motsinger’s allegations, along with those made by many other women who claimed Cosby sexually assaulted them. He has maintained that the women he gave the sedatives to knew what they were being given and that any sexual acts he engaged in were consensual. The jury awarded the 84-year-old Motsinger over $19 million in damages on Monday.
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“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 following the jury’s decision.
Cosby was arrested in 2015 on criminal sexual assault charges. He was convicted in 2018 and servedthree years of a 10-year-sentence before his conviction was overturned on procedural grounds.
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