Nine more women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, alleging in a new lawsuit (via AP News) that the disgraced comedian individually drugged and assaulted them between 1979 and 1992 in Nevada.
The alleged assaults took place between homes, dressing rooms, and hotels in Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe, where the complainants say Cosby “used his enormous power, fame, and prestige, and claimed interest in helping them and/or their careers as a pretense to isolate and sexually assault them.”
One plaintiff alleges Cosby — under the guise of being her acting mentor — convinced her to travel from New York to Nevada, where he spiked what he claimed to be non-alcoholic sparkling cider and then raped her.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed a bill eliminating a prior two-year statute of limitations for adults to file sexual abuse cases. One of the plaintiffs, Lise-Lotte Lublin, had advocated for the change after previously stepping forward with the allegation that he drugged and raped her in a Las Vegas hotel in 1989.
“For years I have fought for survivors of sexual assault and today is the first time I will be able to fight for myself,” Lublin said in a statement (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal). “With the new law change, I now have the ability to take my assailant Bill Cosby to court. My journey has just begun, but I am grateful for this opportunity to find justice.”
Earlier this month, a former Playboy model sued Cosby under a similar California law, alleging that he drugged and sexually assaulted her and another woman at his home in 1969.
Cosby’s publicist Andrew Wyatt responded to such laws with a sanctimonious statement, saying, “Mr. Cosby is a Citizen of these United States but these judges and lawmakers are consistently allowing these civil suits to flood their dockets — knowing that these women are not fighting for victims — but for their addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed.”
Wyatt continued, “From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts of an alleged allegation against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside of the courtroom.”
To this date, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including five women who filed a lawsuit in December 2022 alleging he sexually assaulted them in the 1980s and ’90s while posing as a mentor.
In 2018, he was found guilty and sentenced to no less than three years in prison for three counts of aggravated indecent assault, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2021 after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged. Last June, he was found guilty of assaulting a then-16-year-old girl in civil court and ordered to pay $500,000, which he celebrated by shouting “Booyah!”
If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexual misconduct, you can reach out for support:
RAINN Hotline
1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
http://www.rainn.org
Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HERE” to 741-741
http://www.facebook.com/crisistextline (chat support)
