Two former Cosby Show actresses and three other women sued Bill Cosby and NBCUniversal on Tuesday for sexual assault and assault in New York State Court, detailing the eerily well-known alleged handling of the man once known as “America’s Father.” .
“The plaintiffs were all sexually assaulted, assaulted and abused by Bill Cosby as part of the same conduct, event, plan or scheme perpetrated, performed, organized and/or carried out in New York and other states by Bill Cosby and his associates and enablers Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl, Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson and Cindra Ladd said in the complaint, citing the once imprisoned comedian who has repeatedly used his “tremendous power in such shameful, horrific ways”.
Adds Attorneys Jordan Merson and Jordan Rutsky’s 34-page filing with the Empire State Supreme Court: “Over the course of several decades, Bill Cosby was complicit in the serial sexual assaults of dozens of women for his sexual gratification while the co-defendants facilitated and supported these sexual assaults to financially benefit from her association with Bill Cosby. (Read the complaint here.)
The lawsuit names the Comcast-owned media giant, along with Kaufman Astoria Studios and The Carsey-Werner Company, as co-defendants on charges of “negligence” and seeking a variety of unspecified damages.
“Defendants NBCUniversal Media, LLC, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Inc. and The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC are also guilty and liable because they knew and/or should have known that Bill Cosby was sexually abusing, assaulting and/or ill-treating women , including on their premises, but did nothing to stop it,” the document said about the companies involved in the production of The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Contacted by Deadline, officials from NBCU said the company is not commenting on legal matters. Comment or not, all of the corporate defendants are likely to act fairly quickly to try and extricate themselves from this sordid affair.
More than 60 women have claimed that Cosby drugged and assaulted them with a similar combination of pills and alcohol over the decades; The same is alleged by Bernard, Tirl and the other plaintiffs in this recent affair.
Since the alleged attacks – some of which were previously made public against the much-accused Cosby – took place decades ago, today’s action is a result of the Adult Survivors Act recently enacted in New York. The law, signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May and effective Nov. 24, suspends the statute of limitations for certain sex crimes and gives plaintiffs a one-year window to make claims — as seen in a recent rape trial against donald trump
“This is an important step in holding Bill Cosby and his supporters accountable for their actions and in seeking some measure of justice for the women they have harmed,” Rutsky said in a statement to Deadline today. “We are grateful to the plaintiffs in this lawsuit and other similarly situated women for their courage in confronting their abusers.”
Cosby’s longtime spokesman predictably dismissed the matter.
“As we’ve always said, and now America can see, this isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s all about money,” Wyatt said. “We believe the courts and the court of public opinion will follow the rule of law and clear Mr Cosby of these alleged allegations. Mr. Cosby continues to vehemently deny all allegations against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.”
Cosby, now 85, was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison by a Pennsylvania judge in 2018 after a second trial for raping former Temple University staffer Andrea Constand. His conviction was vacated in June 2021. Following failed appeals and legal loopholes by the comedian and his ever-changing legal team, a majority of the seven judges on the Keystone State Supreme Court ruled last year that Bruce Castor’s decision of then-Montgomery County Attorney Cosby im in 2005 after investigating Constand’s original allegation had binding legal weight.
Cosby, who immediately lost his label as a sex offender and was released from prison, cannot be tried again on the same charges. On March 7 of this year, the US Supreme Court denied a request for a review of the case, which Montgomery DA Kevin Steele had since requested. This move by SCOTUS effectively ended the Constand case barring new and notable circumstances.
In September, Cosby lost his motion for a retrial over Judy Huth’s allegation that the comedian sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in the 1970s when the plaintiff was a minor. A Santa Monica jury on June 21 returned a verdict for Huth in the long-simmering civil case. The 12-member panel awarded Huth $500,000 in damages — money Cosby has so far refused to pay.