A total of nine women have filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby in Nevada just weeks after the state passed a law eliminating the statute of limitations for civil cases.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada, accuses Cosby of using his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to isolate and sexually assault each of the nine women named in the lawsuit.
They are Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Janice Baker Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta and Angela Leslie.
Cosby has been publicly accused of sexual abuses from groping to rape by more than 60 women, many of whom have allegations that are decades old but are being revived as states change statutes defining how courts handle sexual misconduct cases.
Andrew Wyatt, his spokesperson, accused the women suing Cosby of being motivated by their “addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed.”
“From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts … against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside of the courtroom,” Wyatt said in a statement.
Cosby, 85, has consistently denied all allegations of sexual abuse.
Cosby has no criminal convictions, but he was found civilly liable last year of having molested Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975, when she was 16. His attorneys called her a liar.
Nevada Governor, Joe Lombardo on May 31 signed SB129, which eliminated the civil statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases involving adults. Before that, the state had a two-year cutoff for adults to bring forth their cases in court.
Lublin, a Nevada native, is one of the women named in the suit. She and other Cosby accusers advocated for the new legislation that made this new civil claim possible.
Lublin has publicly accused Cosby of drugging her at a hotel in Las Vegas in 1989, alleging that she met him at his room so he could evaluate her acting with an improvisation. According to the lawsuit, Cosby gave her two drinks that he said would “help her relax,” but they caused her to feel disoriented, and he embraced her a short time after.
Cosby grabbed her wrists and held them between his legs, touching her hair as he masturbated, the suit said. Lublin alleged that she was dragged into a bedroom and assaulted, the suit said.
Baker-Kinney was invited to a party at Cosby’s home in Reno, Nevada, in 1982, the lawsuit said, but when she arrived, Cosby was home alone. According to her account, Cosby offered her what she believed were barbiturates and lost consciousness.
She briefly woke up with her pants undone and Cosby’s hand in her open blouse before Cosby moved her to a bedroom, the lawsuit said. When Baker-Kinney next gained consciousness, she was naked in bed with Cosby and he was groping her, according to the lawsuit.
Cosby also faces a civil lawsuit in California, filed this month by former Playboy model Victoria Valentino. She has accused Cosby of drugging her and raping her in 1969, which he has also denied.
