Comedian/actor Bill Cosby was once again accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit on Thursday, June 1.
Victoria Valentino, an 80-year-old former Playboy model, lodged the lawsuit against the 85-year-old actor in Los Angeles County Superior Court, taking advantage of California’s recently extended statute of limitations on sexual assault cases. This legal action comes six months after a 34-page complaint against Cosby was filed in New York’s Supreme Court by five other women.
Valentino’s lawsuit details an incident from 1969 where she alleges Cosby drugged and violated her at a Los Angeles restaurant. She first went public with her accusations in 2014, describing how Cosby approached her while she was mourning the death of her six-year-old son, and gave her a pill he claimed would ease her sorrow.
The lawsuit outlines that after consuming the pill, Valentino became incapacitated and Cosby proceeded to sexually assault her.
In a press statement, Valentino said that Cosby preyed on her vulnerability during a time of intense grief, thereby deepening the pain she was enduring following her son’s death. She hopes that by speaking out, she can provide a legacy for her family, inspire other survivors to speak their truth, and offer hope and the potential for healing.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesperson, reacted to the lawsuit by dismissing it as a racial attack on Black men in America. He castigated Valentino for reportedly disseminating unproven allegations without providing concrete evidence or factual backup. Wyatt urged the media to examine the inconsistencies in Valentino’s various claims, questioning the plausibility of finding possible witnesses to vouch for Cosby.
This isn’t Cosby’s first encounter with sexual assault allegations. In 2018, he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault based on accusations made by Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, who said Cosby assaulted her in his Pennsylvania home in 2004. After serving more than two years in prison, Cosby’s conviction was overturned in June 2021.
In June 2022, Cosby was found guilty by a California jury of sexually assaulting Judy Huth, a 16-year-old at the time, in 1975 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. He was subsequently ordered to pay $500,000 in damages.
