“She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby,” the suit said.
Attorneys said Cosby, 88, did not remember any sexual contact with Motsinger, but that any that had occurred had been consensual.
The jury took three days to deliver its verdict, ordering Cosby to pay US$19.3m, a figure that could increase if they add punitive damages.
The case was heard in the same courthouse where a 2022 jury ordered Cosby to pay US$500,000 ($853,000) in damages to Judy Huth after finding that he had molested her in 1975 when she was just 16 years old.
The man formerly known as “America’s Dad” was jailed in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a woman in a separate criminal case in 2018, but was freed in 2021 when his conviction was overturned on a technicality.
Cosby was a towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture, including for his starring role in The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of being a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol before assaulting them over four decades.
– Agence France-Presse