California jury finds Bill Cosby sexually assaulted 16-year-old in 1975


A California jury on Tuesday found that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in 1975, when Huth was 16 years old. The jury awarded Huth $500,000 in damages.
Huth, 64, filed a civil lawsuit against Cosby, 84, in 2014, accusing him of assaulting her during a night at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Huth and her friend, Donna Samuelson, met Cosby in nearby San Marino while he was filming the movie Let's Do It Again. Both women testified during the trial that Cosby invited them to his tennis club and house, and then had them follow him by car to the Playboy Mansion. Once there, Huth said, Cosby forced her to perform a sex act on him. She also testified that Cosby knew she was "15 or 16" years old.
Cosby denied the allegations, and during a 2015 deposition, said he did not know Huth, never had sexual contact with her, and was unable to identify her. His lawyers also accused Huth of creating a "complete and utter fabrication" in order to make money off of Cosby. In her lawsuit, Huth — who entered into evidence a snapshot of her with Cosby at the Playboy Mansion — initially said the assault took place in 1973 or 1974, but after the trial began, Huth and her attorneys said further evidence showed it took place in the spring of 1975.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Four years ago, Cosby was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, in 2005 at his Pennsylvania home. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison, but his conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year after it ruled prosecutors violated Cosby's due process rights.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Quiz of The Week: 3 – 9 May
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will robots benefit from a sense of touch?
Podcast Plus, has Donald Trump given centrism a new lease of life? And was it wrong to release the deadly film Rust?
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A dancing couple, a new pope, and more
-
$300M lawsuit against Greenpeace has environmentalists on edge
In the spotlight The organization says the future of advocacy and free speech is at risk
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suit
Speed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments law
Speed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'
Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security law
Speed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitution
speed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidence
Speed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulations
Speed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users