5 girls, together with two actors who appeared on “The Cosby Present,” filed a lawsuit in New York on Monday, accusing disgraced comedy legend Invoice Cosby of sexually assaulting them.
The plaintiffs named the actor, Kaufman Astoria Studios Inc., The Carsey-Werner Firm and NBCUniversal Media as defendants within the 34-page lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court docket.
“The Cosby Present,” which ran from 1984 to 1992 on NBC, was filmed at studios now managed by Kaufman Astoria and produced by Carsey-Werner, in response to the civil motion.
All of the defendants are “culpable and liable as a result of they knew and/or ought to have identified that Invoice Cosby was sexually abusing, assaulting, and/or battering girls, together with on their premises, however did nothing to cease it,” in response to the criticism.
NBC Information doesn’t usually establish victims of sexual assault, however the 5 girls on this civil motion all named themselves within the criticism.
- Actor Lili Bernard, who appeared in a “Cosby” episode, stated the defendant organized for her transportation out of New York when he allegedly drugged and raped her — in New Jersey in August 1990 after which months later in Nevada.
- Eden Tirl, who was provided a small position on “Cosby” regardless of having no appearing expertise, accused Cosby and producers of pressuring her quite a few instances to have lunch with him in his non-public dressing room in 1989. When she relented, Cosby allegedly “touched her breasts and with out her consent forcibly pressed his penis into” her again, in response to the swimsuit.
- Aspiring actor Jewel Gittens stated that in “or across the late Eighties,” Cosby invited her to his dwelling in Manhattan the place she was given what she says was a tainted glass of wine. She says she felt sluggish as Cosby allegedly sexually assaulted her along with his finger and “ejaculated from the sexual encounter.”
- Aspiring mannequin Jennifer Thompson stated she was 18 within the late Eighties when Cosby allegedly grabbed her “hand and forcefully positioned it on his penis” and made the sufferer “masturbate him with out her consent” on the actor’s Manhattan dwelling, in response to the lawsuit.
- Cindra Ladd, a “platonic” buddy of Cosby’s stated the actor drugged her in “roughly 1969” and allegedly raped her whereas she was handed out.
The lawsuit didn’t identify a greenback determine sought by the plaintiffs.
Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt referred to as the civil motion “frivolous” and accused plaintiffs of in search of a payout.
“We consider that the courts in addition to the court docket of public opinion will comply with the foundations of regulation and relieve Mr. Cosby of those alleged accusations,” Wyatt stated in a press release.
“Mr. Cosby continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged in opposition to him and appears ahead to defending himself in court docket.”
A spokeswoman for defendant NBC Common Media LLC, the mum or dad firm of NBC Information, declined remark.
Reps for the opposite two defendants couldn’t be instantly reached for touch upon Tuesday.
Cosby was launched from a Pennsylvania jail on June 30 final yr after the state’s excessive court docket overturned his conviction on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018.
The state Supreme Court docket dominated that Cosby’s rights in opposition to self-incrimination had been violated when a prosecutor declined to press a case in opposition to the actor in 2014, permitting “America’s Dad” to talk freely in a civil lawsuit.
However a second prosecutor in the identical jurisdiction later used the lawsuit testimony in a felony trial, and that testimony was key in his conviction for drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
Cosby spent almost three years behind bars earlier than the state excessive court docket’s ruling.
