Bill Cosby’s legal options are narrowing fast. On Friday, May 31, 2026, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected the disgraced comedian’s bid for a new trial in a sexual assault lawsuit, leaving the 88-year-old on the hook for a $59.25 million judgment awarded to a woman who says he drugged and raped her more than 50 years ago.
Judge Bradley Phillips ruled that Cosby failed to demonstrate “any irregularity” in the March 2026 proceedings that would have denied him a fair trial. He also found that the damages awarded to accuser Donna Motsinger were not “excessive,” dismantling the central pillars of Cosby’s post-trial motion in a single order.
“The Court finds that there was sufficient evidence … to support the jury’s finding that defendant’s conduct caused plaintiff’s damages,” Phillips wrote in the ruling issued Friday.
A 1972 Assault, a 2023 Lawsuit
Motsinger, now 84, sued Cosby in September 2023 under a California law that allows historical victims of sexual assault to bring civil cases against their abusers decades after the fact. Her complaint detailed an encounter in 1972, when she was working as a server at a restaurant in Sausalito, California, and Cosby was a regular customer.
According to the suit, Cosby picked her up at her home and escorted her to one of his Bay Area shows, giving her wine and a pill she believed was aspirin on the way to the venue. “Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine,” the complaint alleged. Motsinger said she later awoke at her home wearing only her underwear.
In March, a civil jury sided with her, rejecting Cosby’s defense that he had been the target of mass vigilantism. Jurors awarded $17.5 million in past non-economic damages, $1.75 million in future non-economic damages and $40 million in punitive damages, finding that Cosby had acted with “malice, oppression, or fraud.” The total: $59.25 million.
Cosby’s Defense Falls Flat
Cosby’s attorneys filed for a new trial in early April 2026, calling the punitive award alone — roughly a third of Cosby’s net worth — “presumptively excessive” and arguing the “gigantic awards” served no deterrent function. “He is an 88 year old man with no sight who lives an isolated life,” his lawyers wrote, contending that his “last known sexual misconduct occurred 20 years ago.”
His team further argued that the verdict was driven by emotion rather than evidence. “It is clear that this jury acted out of passion and prejudice, punishing the Defendant to take a stand against all would-be abusers in positions of power and celebrity,” the motion read.
Phillips was unmoved. In his May 31, 2026, order, he wrote that Cosby “has not shown that there was any irregularity in the proceedings or any order or abuse of discretion by the Court that prevented [Cosby] from having a fair trial; that either the compensatory or punitive damages are excessive; that the evidence was insufficient to justify the verdict or that the verdict is against law; or that there was any error in law.”
A Long Trail of Allegations
The Motsinger verdict is the latest courtroom defeat for an entertainer once revered as “America’s Dad.” More than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, with a 2015 New York magazine exposé documenting dozens of allegations after one accuser successfully sued him in 2014.
Cosby became the first Hollywood figure convicted in the wake of the #MeToo movement, found guilty in 2018 of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He served almost three years in a state prison outside of Philadelphia on a three- to 10-year sentence before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 2021.
Civil courts have proven less forgiving. In 2022, a Los Angeles jury awarded Judy Huth $500,000 after she alleged Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975, when she was 16 years old.
Vowing to Appeal
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt signaled the legal team intends to press on, echoing language he has used after previous setbacks and framing the ruling as politically motivated. The defense has consistently maintained Cosby’s innocence and has said he stands behind it.
For Motsinger, Friday’s order brings the prospect of collection one step closer, though appeals could stretch the fight for years. The denial of a new trial clears a key procedural hurdle, allowing the judgment to stand as Cosby’s lawyers prepare their next move in a case that has tested the reach of laws designed to give historical assault victims their day in court.