Comedian Bill Cosby was again accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit on Thursday, June 1.
Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy model now 80 years old, has taken legal action against Cosby, 85, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, following an extension to California’s statute of limitations for sexual assault cases. This comes half a year after five other women lodged a comprehensive 34-page complaint against Cosby in the Supreme Court of New York.
The lawsuit brought by Valentino alleges that Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 1969 at a Los Angeles restaurant. Valentino first made her allegations public in 2014, alleging that Cosby took advantage of her vulnerability as she grieved for her six-year-old son who had drowned, offering her a pill he claimed would help with her grief.
According to the details of the lawsuit, Valentino found herself incapacitated after taking the pill and alleges that Cosby then proceeded to sexually violate her.
In a press release, Valentino stated that Cosby exploited her during a time of profound grief, intensifying the sorrow she was already experiencing due to her son’s passing. She hopes that by speaking up and sharing her story, she can create a meaningful legacy for her family and motivate other survivors to share their experiences, offering them hope and an opportunity for healing.
Responding to the lawsuit, Cosby’s spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, dismissed the lawsuit as an assault on Black men in America. He censured Valentino for supposedly propagating unproven claims without providing any substantiating evidence or factual grounding. Wyatt stressed the necessity for the media to probe the inconsistencies in Valentino’s myriad claims and questioned the feasibility of finding witnesses who could testify in favor of Cosby.
Cosby has been previously accused and convicted of sexual assault. In 2018, he was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault based on the allegations of Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who accused Cosby of assaulting her in his Pennsylvania home in 2004. Cosby’s conviction was eventually overturned after more than two years in prison, leading to his release in June 2021.
In June 2022, a California jury ruled that Cosby was guilty of sexually assaulting Judy Huth, who was 16 at the time, at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975. He was instructed to pay $500,000 in damages.