By Brian Melley and Andrew Dalton
Associated Press
Jurors in a civil trial testified Tuesday that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1975.
The Los Angeles County jury returned the verdict in favor of Judy Huth, now 64, awarding her $500,000.
She said that the fact that jurors believed her story meant more than the sum of money or the fact that she did not win punitive damages.
"It's been torture," Huth said of the seven-year legal fight.
"To be ripped apart, thrown under the bus and backed up. This, to me, is a huge win."
Jurors found that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Huth, that he reasonably believed that she was under the age of 18, and that his conduct was motivated by an abnormal or unnatural sexual interest in a minor.
Bill Cosby arrives for his sentencing hearing after being convicted of sexual assault at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on September 25, 2018.AP
The jury's decision marks a major legal defeat for the 84-year-old artist who was once hailed as
the "Father of America
. "
It comes nearly a year after his Pennsylvania sexual assault criminal conviction was overturned and he was released from jail.
Huth's lawsuit was one of the last remaining legal claims against him after his insurer settled many others against his will.
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Cosby did not attend the trial or testify in person, but brief excerpts from the 2015 video statement were played for jurors, in which he denied any sexual contact with Huth.
She continues to deny the allegation through her attorney and her publicist.
Cosby's spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, stated that they would appeal the verdict, adding that the defense won because Huth did not win punitive damages.
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Jurors had already reached conclusions on almost all the questions on their verdict form, including whether Cosby abused Huth and whether she deserved compensation, after two days of deliberations on Friday.
But the jury foreman was unable to continue his duty due to a personal commitment, and the panel had to start deliberating from scratch with a substitute juror on Monday.
Cosby's attorneys agreed that he met Huth and her high school friend on a movie set in Southern California in April 1975, then took them to the Playboy Mansion a few days later.
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Huth's friend, Donna Samuelson, a key witness, took photos at Huth and Cosby's mansion, which featured prominently in the trial.
Huth testified that in a bedroom adjacent to a game room where the three of them had been hanging out, Cosby attempted to reach down her pants, then exposed his private parts and forced her to perform a sexual act.
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She filed her lawsuit in 2014, claiming that the fact that her son turned 15 - the age she initially remembered when she came to the mansion - and the wave of other women accusing Cosby of similar acts gave her a new trauma for what had happened when I was a teenager.
Huth's attorney, Nathan Goldberg, told a jury of nine women and three men during closing arguments Wednesday that "my client deserves to hold Mr. Cosby accountable for what he did."
"Each of you knows in your heart that Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted Ms. Huth," Goldberg said.
At least nine of 12 jurors agreed, giving Huth a victory in a lawsuit that lasted nearly eight years and overcame many hurdles just to get to trial.
During their testimony, Cosby's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, constantly questioned Huth and Samuelson about the errors of detail in their accounts, and about the similarity that, according to the attorney, represented a coordination between the two women.
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This included both saying in pretrial depositions and in police interviews that Samuelson had played
Donkey Kong
that day, a game that didn't come out for sale until six years later.
Bonjean made much of this, in what both sides came to call the "
Donkey Kong
defense ."
Goldberg asked jurors to put aside the small errors of detail that he said were inevitable in stories that are 45 years old, and focus on the main points of the accusations.
He pointed out to jurors that Samuelson said “games like
Donkey Kong
” when he first mentioned it in his deposition.
[
Cosby's attorney began her closing argument by saying, "He's like
Donkey Kong
," and ended by declaring, "Game over."
Huth's attorney reacted with outrage during his rebuttal.
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“This is about justice!” he yelled, slamming the podium.
“We don't need the game to be over!
We need justice."
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused, unless they come forward publicly, as Huth has done.
Outside court, a group of four women who said they represent dozens of Cosby sexual abuse victims celebrated the verdict.
Chelan Lasha, who testified against Cosby in the Pennsylvania case, was in tears.
She said he had drugged and assaulted her in the Elvis Presley suite at the Las Vegas Hilton when she was 17 years old.
"He's El Coco, he's a sexual predator, he's a deviant," Lasha said.
"It is awful.
This is one more victory.
I've come here to support Judy.
I'm proud of Judy.
I'm happy with the result."