The woman who won $59.25 million from Bill Cosby says she has seen none of it — no money, no bank statements, no answers to the court’s questions.
Donna Motsinger, the former Northern California waitress who won that verdict in the spring, has asked a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to hold the 89-year-old comedian in contempt for ignoring an order to open his books, according to court documents reported Nov. 12, 2026. A jury found Cosby liable on March 23 for drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1972. She wants him jailed until he complies.
Cosby’s “noncompliance is not partial, late, or excusable. It is total,” her filing says.
The Deadline That Came and Went
Judge Bradley S. Phillips ordered Cosby on Oct. 9 to serve verified answers, without objection, to written questions about his assets, and to pay $1,560 in sanctions to Motsinger’s lawyers. He gave him 10 days. The deadline was Oct. 19.
Nothing arrived, according to Motsinger, who says Cosby has disclosed nothing about his bank accounts, his income or his other holdings since the verdict. Her filing asks the court to haul him in and make him explain the refusal, and to issue an arrest warrant if he does not show up. She is seeking fines of up to $1,000 and five days in jail for each violation, plus $3,284 in attorney’s fees and costs. If he is found in contempt and still refuses, she wants him held until he turns over the information.
Not for the Debt Itself
A warrant is a “real possibility,” said Joshua Wurtzel, an attorney at Schlam Stone & Dolan — but not over the unpaid money. “Courts typically are not able to jail people for unpaid civil debts,” Wurtzel said. He called contempt both a serious threat to Cosby and a lever to force him into compliance.
The exposure comes from the order he is accused of ignoring. What Phillips demanded is the substance of a debtor’s exam: a full accounting of assets and where they sit, from accounts and investments to real estate, business interests and income. Under California law, if a judge orders a debtor to show cause, the debtor is personally served and then fails to appear, the judge can direct the sheriff to bring him in. A contempt finding could keep him there until he answers.
The Health Defense Her Lawyer Disputes
Cosby’s absence from courtrooms is not confined to this case. He skipped three depositions scheduled in April, June and September in a separate federal case brought by 10 women in Nevada, according to reporting attributed to the accusers’ lawyers. His attorney cites legal blindness, limited mobility and age-related health problems.
Motsinger’s attorney, Jesse Creed, tells it differently. He says Cosby looked sharp and healthy when he sat for a deposition in November 2025, and he accuses the comedian of hiding assets — an allegation, not a finding. In the Nevada matter, another attorney has asked a federal judge to compel Cosby’s deposition or enter a default judgment.
Jennifer Bonjean, Cosby’s attorney, has said her client does not leave home and is in poor health. She argued to jurors at trial that the punitive award was not a question of deterrence. After the verdict she said he had been denied a fair trial, and that claims reaching back half a century leave a defendant no real way to answer them. Phillips rejected Cosby’s bid for a new trial in May, finding he had shown no irregularity that made the trial unfair. The appeal is pending.
What She Told the Jury
Motsinger was waiting tables at the Trident in Sausalito, Calif., in 1972, when Cosby was in the area to record a stand-up performance at a nearby theater. She testified that she was given wine and a pill, then lost awareness. Her complaint says she went in and out of consciousness.
The case reached a jury only because California reopened a window for sexual assault claims that had expired under the old time limits. The panel awarded $19.25 million in compensatory damages — $17.5 million for past mental trauma and $1.75 million for future mental suffering — then added $40 million in punitive damages. It stands as one of the largest civil awards against him. Motsinger, now in her 80s, called the outcome 54 years in the making.
She was not new to his litigation. Motsinger was among the anonymous Jane Does who testified in Andrea Constand’s 2005 civil case against Cosby. Constand’s allegations later produced his only criminal conviction, in Pennsylvania in 2018; he served more than two years of a three-to-10-year sentence before the state Supreme Court threw out the conviction in 2021 over a violated prosecutorial agreement. Another accuser won damages in a 2022 civil case. Cosby has denied every allegation of nonconsensual sexual contact and maintains his innocence.
Phillips has not ruled on the contempt request, and no arrest warrant has been issued. A hearing on it is scheduled for January 2027.
Even if the judge signs one, the paper may be easier to issue than to serve: carrying out a warrant becomes considerably harder if Cosby is outside California.