Bill Cosby's bid to undo a multimillion-dollar civil judgment in Los Angeles has hit a wall, the Los Angeles Times reports. A county Superior Court judge on Friday refused Cosby's request for a new trial, leaving intact a jury's decision that he owes $19.25 million in damages to Donna Motsinger, who says he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1972. (USA Today reports the amount owed is $59.25 million, citing $40 million in punitive damages that were also awarded.) Judge Bradley S. Phillips ruled Cosby hadn't shown any procedural problems that would have undercut the fairness of the trial and said the damages were not unreasonably high. Phillips wrote there was enough evidence to back the jury's conclusion that Cosby's actions caused Motsinger's harm.
Motsinger, now 84, alleged Cosby, whom she met while she was a server at a restaurant he frequented, gave her wine and a pill she believed was aspirin on the way to one of his shows. She says she then faded in and out of consciousness and later woke up at home wearing only underwear. Cosby has denied her account and those of numerous other women who have accused him of drugging and assaulting them, and, per TMZ, he says the award represents one-third of his net worth. He previously served nearly three years in a Pennsylvania prison before his criminal conviction in that state was overturned in 2021. Cosby's attorneys did not immediately comment on the latest ruling.
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