The civil court on Tuesday awarded the now 64-year-old Judy
Huth $500,000 in damages.
“It’s been torture,” Huth said of the seven-year legal
fight. “To be ripped apart, you know, thrown under the bus and backed over.
This, to me, is such a big victory.”
Jurors found that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual
contact with Huth, that he reasonably believed she was under 18, and that his
conduct was driven by unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in a minor.
The decision is a significant legal defeat for the
84-year-old entertainer once hailed as America’s dad. It comes nearly a year
after his Pennsylvania criminal conviction for sexual assault was thrown out
and he was freed from prison. Huth’s lawsuit was one of the last remaining
legal claims against him after his insurer settled many others against his
will.
Cosby did not attend the trial or testify in person, but
short clips from a 2015 video deposition were played for jurors, in which he
denied any sexual contact with Huth. He continues to deny the allegation
through his lawyer and publicist.
The comedian’s lawyers agreed that Cosby met Huth and her
high school friend on a Southern California film set in April of 1975, then
took them to the Playboy Mansion a few days later.
Huth’s friend Donna Samuelson, a key witness, took photos at
the mansion of Huth and Cosby, which loomed large at the trial.
Huth testified that in a bedroom next to a games room where
the three had been hanging out, Cosby attempted to put his hand down her pants,
then exposed himself and forced her to perform a sex act.
Cosby’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean challenged Huth’s account
throughout the trial, including changes to the timeline.
When the lawsuit was filed in December 2014, Huth said the
incident occurred in 1974, when she was 15. However, she told jurors she had
recently concluded that she had been mistaken about the year and believed it
had actually happened a year later.
Cosby is best known for his role as the loveable husband and
father in the 1980s television comedy series The Cosby Show.
But his family-friendly reputation was shattered after more
than 50 women accused him of sexual assaults over nearly five decades.