Bill Cosby ordered to pay $32.4m to woman over sexual assault case

Bill Cosby has been ordered to pay more than US$19 million ($32.4m) after a civil hearing in California. Photo / Getty Images

A woman who said she was drugged and sexually assaulted by veteran United States entertainer Bill Cosby has been awarded more than US$19 million ($32.4m) after a civil hearing in California.

Donna Motsinger said she was working as a waitress more than 50 years ago when the performer began to target her.

The hearing in Santa Monica was told how the comedian had initially come into the restaurant where the now 84-year-old Motsinger worked.

One day when he picked her up in his limousine, Cosby gave her a glass of wine and what she thought was an aspirin.

She began slipping in and out of consciousness and the next thing she knew she was waking up at home, wearing only her underwear.

“She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby,” the suit said.

Attorneys said Cosby, 88, did not remember any sexual contact with Motsinger, but that any that had occurred had been consensual.

The jury took three days to deliver its verdict, ordering Cosby to pay US$19.3m, a figure that could increase if they add punitive damages.

The case was heard in the same courthouse where a 2022 jury ordered Cosby to pay US$500,000 ($853,000) in damages to Judy Huth after finding that he had molested her in 1975 when she was just 16 years old.

The man formerly known as “America’s Dad” was jailed in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a woman in a separate criminal case in 2018, but was freed in 2021 when his conviction was overturned on a technicality.

Cosby was a towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture, including for his starring role in The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992.

Dozens of women have accused Cosby of being a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol before assaulting them over four decades.

- Agence France-Presse