Nine women have filed a lawsuit against disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby, accusing him of sexually assaulting them between 1979 and 1992 in Nevada.
The suit, filed in the Southern Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, comes as a result of a 2023 law that eliminated the statute of limitations for sexual assault victims to sue the perpetrator for damages arising from sexual abuse, according to the suit.
Cosby is accused of sexual assault, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment, according to the suit. The nine women who filed the new lawsuit in Nevada are Lise Lotte-Lublin, Lili Bernard, Janice Baker-Kinney, Rebecca Cooper, Linda Kirkpatrick, Janice Dickinson, Angela Leslie, Pam Joy Abeyta and Heidi Thomas.
After Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in Pennsylvania state prison in 2018 for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004, his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2021 and he was released.
The conviction was overturned in June 2021 when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded Cosby’s prosecution should never have occurred due to a deal he cut with the Montgomery County prosecutor, who agreed not to criminally prosecute Cosby if he gave a deposition in a civil case brought against him by Constand.
Cosby has always denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said any sexual relationships were consensual.
“Mr. Cosby is a Citizen of these United States but these judges and lawmakers are consistently allowing these civil suits to flood their dockets — knowing that these women are not fighting for victims — but for their addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed,” Cosby’s publicist Andrew Wyatt said in a statement to ABC News. “From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts of an alleged allegation against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside of the courtroom.”
Last December, five women filed a similar suit against him accusing Cosby of sexual assault and battery under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.
Cosby, in a statement from his representatives, denied those allegations at the time, saying, “Mr. Cosby continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.” He filed a motion to dismiss the case last month.
Bill Cosby is seen on April 12, 2018 outside the courthouse at his trial for sexual assault in Norristown, Penn.
Dennis Van Tine/Star Max via AP, FILE
The Nevada lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that Cosby engaged in the serial sexual assault of dozens of women, including the plaintiffs, by “drugging women and using unknown substances to incapacitate them.”
“Each Plaintiff was sexually battered, assaulted, and abused by defendant Cosby in the same or similar manner, as a part of the same conduct, occurrence, plan, or scheme that was perpetrated, conducted, organized, and/or performed in Nevada by defendant Cosby,” the women alleged in the suit.
The suit alleged Cosby used his “enormous power, fame, and prestige, and claimed interest in helping them and/or their careers as a pretense to isolate and sexually assault them.”
In the suit, accusers detailed similar stories of Cosby offering them drinks with intoxicants in them without their knowledge, leaving them unable to move, before he sexually assaulted or raped them. The women alleged they were brought to his residences, hotel rooms or an isolated area under false pretenses before the assaults occurred, according to the suit.
Lublin, one of the accusers, alleged Cosby brought her to his Nevada hotel room under the pretense that he would be mentoring her and assessing her acting skills, according to the suit. Lublin alleges Cosby then gave her beverages that had an intoxicant in them before sexually assaulting and raping her, the suit says.
Bernard, another accuser who was brought to his room under similar pretenses, said she lost consciousness after drinking a beverage Cosby gave her and awoke to find herself naked and it was difficult for her to move, according to the suit.
Bernard alleged she told Cosby she did not want to have sex and cried out for help, according to the suit. Cosby then allegedly placed a pillow over her face to silence her protests before he raped her, according to the suit. She attempted to fight him off during the rape but was unable to, according to the suit.
Cooper, a masseuse accusing him of assault, alleged Cosby invited her to his shows several times before inviting her to dinner and to provide him with masseuse services because of a tennis injury, according to the suit.
During dinner, Cosby offered her a beverage that had an intoxicant in it, and insisted that she drink it all, according to the suit. Before she had a chance to eat dinner, Cosby escorted her to his dressing room, by which time she had begun to feel disoriented. Cooper alleged in the suit that once isolated in his dressing room, Cosby raped her despite her protests and while she was unable to move, according to the lawsuit.
The suit claims that due to Cosby’s alleged conduct, the women suffered horrific injuries, including severe physical injury, emotional distress and lifelong psychological trauma. The women are asking a jury to award them compensatory damages and punitive damages.
