A jury in California ruled against Bill Cosby on Tuesday in a civil trial, finding that he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl in 1975, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Judy Huth filed a civil lawsuit against Cosby in 2014. She accused the comedian of giving her alcohol and taking her to the Playboy Mansion when she was 16 years old in 1975. Huth claims that Cosby — who was in his 30s at the time — sexually assaulted her, per the Los Angeles Times.
The verdict: During this civil trial, a jury of eight women and four men decided that Cosby was liable and ordered him to pay Huth $500,000 in damages, with no punitive damage payments, CNN stated.
- Huth said that the “jury’s finding that she was sexually abused was more important than the monetary amount,” according to NBC News.
Worth noting: This is the first civil case against Cosby to actually lead to a trial.
- Others who have alleged Cosby assaulted them were not allowed to take their case to trial because they didn’t come forward at the time of the assault, according to The New York Times.
- Huth’s case, however, is different due to the fact that she was a minor at the time.
- According to Reuters, California law allows people who were assaulted as children to press charges as an adult.
A look back: This civil trial takes place one year after Cosby was released from prison.
- He was released because of an agreement made by a prosecutor in 2005, who claimed he would not prosecute Cosby in the case against Andrea Constand, per the Deseret News.
- In March, the Supreme Court revealed that it would drop Cosby’s case completely.
The defense: Cosby did not testify in person or attend the trial, NPR reported, and he denied all of the allegations.
- Cosby’s team defended him by attempting to find holes in Huth’s story, saying that she had changed the timeline, according to NBC.
- “When the lawsuit was filed in December 2014, Huth said the incident had occurred in 1974, when she was 15. She told jurors she recently concluded that she had been mistaken about the year and now believes it happened in 1975,” per Reuters.
- “She will not be getting a dime,” said Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist, according to CBS News. “What happened today wasn’t a victory — they didn’t get punitive damages. The victory was ours because we got to disclose and show what this woman was all about. There was no win here.”
Bottom line: Nine out of 12 jurors ruled in favor of Huth, per NPR.