Nine women have filed lawsuits against disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby, accusing him of sexually abusing them between 1979 and 1992 in Nevada.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, is the result of a 2023 law that removes the statute of limitations for sexual assault victims to sue the offender for damages based on sexual abuse of the suit .
Cosby faces charges of sexual assault, assault, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment, according to the lawsuit. The nine women who filed the new Nevada lawsuit are Lise Lotte-Lublin, Lili Bernard, Janice Baker-Kinney, Rebecca Cooper, Linda Kirkpatrick, Janice Dickinson, Angela Leslie, Pam Joy Abeyta and Heidi Thomas.
After Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in Pennsylvania State Penitentiary for alleged drug addiction and sexual assault of former Temple University staffer Andrea Constand in 2018, his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2021 and he was released.
The conviction was vacated in June 2021 when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that Cosby’s prosecution should never have happened based on an agreement he had with the Montgomery County Attorney of Constand.
Cosby has consistently denied any allegations of wrongdoing and has stated that all sexual relations were consensual.
“Mr. Cosby is a citizen of this United States, but these judges and legislators are constantly allowing these civil lawsuits to flood their files – knowing full well that these women are not fighting for victims, but because they depend on massive media attention. Greed,” Cosbys said Publicist Andrew Wyatt in a statement to ABC News. “From this day forward, we will no longer allow these women to display various accounts of an alleged allegation against Mr. Cosby without scrutiny in the court of public opinion and in the courtroom.”
Last December, five women filed a similar lawsuit against him, charging Cosby with sexual assault and assault under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.
In a statement from his representatives at the time, Cosby denied those allegations, saying, “Mr. Cosby remains vehemently denying all allegations made against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.” Last month, he filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Bill Cosby is seen outside the courthouse at his sexual assault trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania on April 12, 2018. Dennis Van Tine/Star Max via AP, FILE
The Nevada lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that Cosby was involved in multiple sexual assaults on dozens of women, including the plaintiffs, by “drugging women and using unknown substances to incapacitate them.” “.
“Each Plaintiff was sexually assaulted, assaulted and abused by the Defendant Cosby in the same or a similar manner as part of the same conduct, event, plot or scheme committed, performed, organized and/or carried out in Nevada by the Defendant Cosby,” the alleged women in suit.
The lawsuit alleged that Cosby used his “tremendous power, fame and standing, and his interest in helping them and/or their careers as an excuse to isolate and sexually assault them.”
In the lawsuit, the accusers reported similar stories in which Cosby unbeknownst to them offered them drinks containing intoxicating substances so they could not move before he sexually abused or raped them. The women allege they were taken to his homes, hotel rooms or a remote area under false pretenses before the assaults occurred, the lawsuit says.
Lublin, one of the accusers, alleged that Cosby took her to his Nevada hotel room on the pretense that he would mentor her and assess her acting skills, the lawsuit says. Lublin alleges that Cosby then gave her drinks containing an intoxicant before sexually abusing and raping her, the lawsuit says.
Bernard, another accuser who was taken to his room under similar pretexts, said she lost consciousness after drinking a drink Cosby had given her and upon waking found she was naked and having a hard time be able to move, the lawsuit says.
Bernard claimed she told Cosby she didn’t want to have sex and cried out for help, the lawsuit says. Cosby then allegedly placed a pillow over her face to silence her protests before raping her, the lawsuit says. She tried to fend him off during the rape, but was unsuccessful, according to the lawsuit.
Cooper, a massage therapist who accused him of assault, claimed that Cosby invited her to his shows several times before inviting her to dinner and offered him massage therapy services because of a tennis injury, the lawsuit says.
During dinner, Cosby offered her a drink that contained an intoxicant and insisted she drink it all, the lawsuit says. Before she had a chance to eat dinner, Cosby escorted her to his dressing room, where she was already beginning to feel disoriented. Cooper alleged in the lawsuit that after he was isolated in his dressing room, Cosby raped her despite her protests and although she was unable to move, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that the women suffered horrific injuries, including serious physical injury, emotional distress and lifelong psychological trauma, as a result of Cosby’s alleged behavior. The women are asking a grand jury to award them compensatory and punitive damages.