A woman who claims Bill Cosby drugged and raped her more than 50 years ago has been awarded $19.25m.
Jurors found the disgraced comedian liable for the sexual assault and sexual battery of Donna Motsinger after meeting her in a restaurant in Sausalito, California, in 1972.
She said Cosby later invited her to the recording of his stand-up act Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby at the Circle Star Theatre in nearby San Carlos.
Ms Motsinger alleged Cosby gave her wine and round white pills she thought were aspirin.
Bill Cosby, pictured in 2018, has receded from public life. Pic: AP/Matt Slocum
“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness,” Ms Motsinger’s lawsuit said.
“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.”
On Monday, Ms Motsinger was awarded $17.5m (£13m) for past mental suffering and $1.75m (£1.3m) for future suffering after an almost two-week trial at the courthouse in Santa Monica, California.
Her lawyer, Spencer Lucas, said: “To fulfil his sexual deviancy, he surreptitiously drugged women with sedatives, often combined with alcohol, with the intent of rendering them unconscious so he could have his way with them.”
Bill Cosby was convicted of sexual assault in 2018, but was released in 2021 after the decision was overturned.. File pic: Montgomery County Correctional Facility handout via Reuters
Mr Lucas also played excerpts from a videotaped deposition in which Cosby said he had got a prescription for Quaaludes over a game of poker with a doctor.
Asked whether the prescription was written “at the poker table”, Cosby responded “yes.”
The lawyer asked: “When you got the prescription for Quaaludes, you had it in your mind to offer them to young women you wanted to have sex with?”
Cosby replied: “Yes.”
The lawyer asked in the video: “How did you know that a woman who you gave a Quaalude to was capable of consent?”
“I didn’t,” Cosby responded.
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Evidence showed Cosby filled the prescription seven times, obtaining a total of 210 Quaalude pills, the court heard.
“He didn’t worry about consent, because that was his common plan and scheme,” Mr Lucas added.
Cosby’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said in an email to Associated Press that they were disappointed with the verdict, and intended to appeal.
Cosby spent three years in prison after being convicted of a sexual assault in 2018, but was released in 2021 after the decision was overturned.
