Photo: zz/Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IPx
Bill Cosby is once again facing trial over an alleged sexual assault. The disgraced comedian, now 88, stands accused in a Santa Monica civil court case of raping a woman before a comedy show nearly six decades ago. As with other Cosby accusers, Donna Motsinger alleges that Cosby incapacitated her with some sort of drug to facilitate the attack, according to court documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Cosby has maintained that he did not assault Motsinger.
More broadly, Cosby has insisted that he never sexually assaulted any of the many women who have stepped forward with sexual-misconduct allegations against him. The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, started in earnest on March 10 with opening statements, and three other accusers are poised to testify, the New York Times reported. Motsinger’s lawsuit is reportedly among dozens of other civil actions against Cosby now playing out in courts across the U.S. Here is what we know about the new Cosby trial.
Donna Motsinger was a server at the Trident, a highly regarded restaurant in Sausalito, California, when she met Cosby in 1972. She was 31 and had served his table. Cosby was a Trident regular, according to court papers. One week when Motsinger was working, Cosby was particularly extroverted. “He hung out to talk to Ms. Motsinger,” her lawsuit filed on September 27, 2023, claims. Cosby even asked if he could call her son and used the restaurant payphone to do so. “Defendant Cosby did this to lure and groom Ms. Motsinger for his future assault.” The Times reports that Motsinger is now 84. Motsinger also claims that everybody “was fawning over him due to his international celebrity and acclaim” at the restaurant.
One day, Motsinger was returning to her Mill Valley, California, home when Cosby “followed her and pulled up next to her.” Cosby allegedly asked Motsinger if she would go with him to a comedy show at Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, and she said yes. Cosby said he would pick her up, and he later arrived at Motsinger’s house in a limo. He allegedly gave her a glass of wine in the car.
When they got to Circle Star Theater, Cosby purportedly brought her to the dressing room. “She began to feel sick and Mr. Cosby gave her what she believed was an aspirin,” the lawsuit claims. “Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine with Mr. Cosby.” She said that Cosby put his arms around her in the limo. “The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light. She woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on — no top, no bra, and no pants. She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”
California is among several states that recently updated their laws so sexual-assault accusers can take legal action for alleged incidents that took place years ago, the Times noted. Cosby similarly faced several suits in New York under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which provided a one-year look-back window for accusers to file suit over allegations that would otherwise be time-barred. The window for New York closed on Thanksgiving 2023, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Times, Jesse Creed, who is representing Motsinger, said, “The changes are essential to justice for survivors of sexual assault … the California legislature has rightly recognized that sexual assault survivors take years to process trauma and build the courage to confront their sexual assault perpetrators.”
In addition to Motsinger, witnesses are expected to include three other women who have accused Cosby of assault. Among those women is Andrea Constand — whose allegations against Cosby led to his sexual-assault conviction, per the Times.
Constand has claimed that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. At the time, Constand was the sports director at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater. At Cosby’s 2018 retrial in Pennsylvania, Constand testified that he provided her a pill that he claimed would help her allergies. Constand, who said she thought of Cosby as a mentor and trusted him, took the pill. She started feeling woozy and thought something was wrong. Cosby, then in his late 60s, began touching her, she alleged. Constand’s testimony at Motsinger’s civil trial echoed what she said during his criminal trial, the Times said.
Wasn’t Cosby convicted in Constand’s case against him?
Yes, but in 2021, Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out his felony conviction, deciding that a “non-prosecution agreement” with a prior prosecutor should have kept him from ever being on trial. The court also took issue with the “prior bad act witnesses” who testified at his second trial. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Pennsylvania prosecutors’ appeal in 2022, meaning the top state court’s decision remained in place.
Cosby’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, has argued in court papers that Motsinger’s description of events was “based on nothing more than speculation” and time-barred. “She speculates that Defendant gave her some type of pills that were not actually aspirin. How Defendant anticipated that she would ask for aspirin is anyone’s best guess,” Bonjean said in a court filing reported by the Times. Cosby denies Motsinger’s claims. During a deposition in Motsinger’s case, Cosby reportedly complained about his financial situation.
Cosby is not expected to be in court, according to the New York Times.
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