Bill Cosby has been found liable by a civil jury in California for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 1972, with Donna Motsinger awarded a total of $59.25 million (€51.10 million) in damages.
After a nearly two-week trial in Santa Monica, jurors found the 88-year-old liable for sexual battery and assault.
Motsinger was initially awarded $17.5 million (€15.09 million) in past damages and $1.75 million (€1.51 million) in future damages. In a second phase of the trial, the jury added $40 million (€34.49 million) in punitive damages.
Cosby's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said the defence intended to appeal.
Motsinger said in her lawsuit, filed in 2023, that she had been working at a restaurant in Sausalito, near San Francisco, when Cosby invited her to one of his stand-up shows in nearby San Carlos.
She alleged that he gave her wine and pills she believed were aspirin, and that she drifted in and out of consciousness before later waking up at home partially undressed.
In court filings, Cosby’s legal team argued that the allegations relied on speculation and assumption.
Cosby did not testify during the trial.
The verdict comes nearly five years after Cosby was released from prison in Pennsylvania, where he had served almost three years of a sentence linked to the sexual assault of Andrea Constand.
That conviction was later overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Motsinger first made her allegations anonymously in a 2005 lawsuit brought by Constand. In 2022, another California civil jury awarded $500,000 (€431,000) to Judy Huth, who said Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager.
More than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct over the years, allegations he has denied.
