A California jury has ordered former comedian and actor Bill Cosby to pay $19.25 million in damages to a former waitress who accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her more than five decades ago.
In the civil case decided in Santa Monica, the jury found Cosby liable for a 1972 incident involving Donna Motsinger, now 84.
Motsinger told the court that Cosby picked her up in a limousine and gave her wine and a pill she believed was aspirin before taking her to one of his shows.
According to court filings, she said the substance left her incapacitated.
“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness… the last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light,” the lawsuit stated.
She said she later woke up at home partially undressed and concluded she had been drugged and raped.
Cosby, 88, has consistently denied the allegation, as well as similar claims made by dozens of women over the years. His legal team argued that Motsinger “freely admits that she has no idea what happened.”
Jennifer Bonjean, Cosby’s lawyer, said the comedian would appeal the verdict.
Motsinger previously worked at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito, a popular celebrity hangout at the time, where she said she first encountered Cosby.
Cosby has faced accusations from more than 60 women.
They allege that he used sedatives and alcohol to assault them over a period of 40 years.
Despite numerous lawsuits, Cosby has not been criminally convicted.
In 2018, he was imprisoned in a criminal case, but his conviction was overturned in 2021 on a technicality.
