Bill Cosby Faces a Sexual Assault Civil Trial
Eleven months after he was freed from prison when a Pennsylvania appeals court threw out his criminal conviction, Bill Cosby, 85, will again be the defendant in a trial over sexual assault allegations. This time, it will be in a civil case in California relating to events in mid-1970s Los Angeles. A jury in the coastal city of Santa Monica, California, has been chosen and opening statements begin Wednesday in the case that is expected to last two weeks.
Here’s a look at the key elements of the case:
THE CASE AGAINST COSBY
Judy Huth, now 64, says when she was 16 years old in 1975, she and a friend met Cosby at a Los Angeles-area park, where he was filming the movie “Let’s Do It Again” with Sidney Poitier. A few days later, Huth’s lawsuit says, Cosby had her drink alcohol “as part of a game,” then took her to the Playboy Mansion. There, according to the complaint, he took her into an isolated bedroom, kissed her on the mouth, slid his hand down her pants, and used her hand to perform a sex act on him. Huth filed a lawsuit against Cosby in 2014, seeking financial damages to be determined at trial.
