Nine women filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby in Nevada on Wednesday, just weeks after the state passed a law eliminating the statute of limitations in civil cases.
The suit, filed in the US District Court for Nevada, accuses Cosby of using his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to isolate and sexually assault each of the nine women named in the suit.
They are Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Janice Baker Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta and Angela Leslie.
Bill Cosby outside the courthouse for his sexual assault trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania on April 12, 2018.Dennis Van Tine / STAR MAX/IPx via AP file
“NBC News Daily” anchor Kate Snow will have an exclusive interview with some of the women, which will air Thursday.
Cosby has been publicly accused of sexual abuse ranging from beatings to rape by more than 60 women, many of whom have allegations that date back decades, but are being picked up as states change statutes that define what the courts handle cases of sexual misconduct.
Andrew Wyatt, his spokesman, accused the women suing Cosby of being motivated by his “addiction to a large amount of media attention and greed.”
“From this day forward, we will no longer allow these women to parade multiple accounts against Mr. Cosby without examining them in the court of public opinion and inside the courtroom,” Wyatt said in a statement.
Cosby, 85, has consistently denied all allegations of sexual abuse.
Cosby has no criminal convictions, but was found civilly liable last year for molesting Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975, when she was 16. Her lawyers called her a liar.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed SB129 on May 31, which eliminated the civil statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases involving adults. Before that, the state had a two-year cutoff for adults to bring their cases to court.
Lise-Lotte Lublin walks through the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., in 2018.Mark Makela / AFP – File Getty Images
Lublin, a Nevada native, is one of the women named in the suit. She and other Cosby accusers argued for new legislation that would make this new civil suit possible.
Lublin has it publicly accused Cosby of drugging her in a Las Vegas hotel in 1989, claiming she met him in her room so he could gauge her performance with an improvisation. According to the lawsuit, Cosby gave her two drinks that he said would “help her relax,” but they left her disoriented and he hugged her a short time later.
Cosby grabbed her wrists and held them between her legs, touching her hair while he masturbated, the suit said. Lublin alleged she was dragged into a bedroom and assaulted, the lawsuit said.
Baker-Kinney was invited to a party at Cosby’s home in Reno, Nev., in 1982, the lawsuit said, but when she arrived, Cosby was home alone. According to his story, Cosby offered her what she believed to be barbiturates and she passed out.
She awoke briefly to her pants undone and Cosby’s hand in her open blouse before Cosby moved her into a bedroom, the lawsuit said. When Baker-Kinney regained consciousness, she was naked in bed with Cosby and he was groping her, according to the lawsuit.
Janice Baker-Kinney claims Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1982.Date line
Baker-Kinney testified against Cosby in 2018 in his Pennsylvania criminal case, in which he was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Cosby was initially convicted in the 2018 trial of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2021. The court found that he was denied protection against self-incrimination.
Thomas also testified in the Constand case, saying he took her to his home in Reno under the pretense of helping her with her career. The suit says she traveled from Denver in 1984 under the impression that Cosby was going to offer her a mentoring session.
After struggling to perform a scene depicting an intoxicated character, Cosby offered Thomas an alcoholic drink to help her, according to the lawsuit. She drank the drink, passed out and woke up to Cosby’s assault, according to the lawsuit.
Lili Bernard, Victoria Valentino and Gloria Allred on NBC’s “TODAY” show in 2018.Nathan Congleton / TODAY
Bernard met Cosby in 1990 and offered to mentor him, according to the lawsuit.
Cosby asked her to travel to Las Vegas in the fall of 1990 and was promised a meeting with the producers of “A Different World,” but she was drugged while drinking a soft drink, the lawsuit said. She joined Cosby in his hotel suite for a “mentoring session,” according to the lawsuit.
Bernard said he drank what he was told was non-alcoholic sparkling cider, but now believes Cosby spiked the drink. She later woke up naked, with Cosby bare on her feet, and told Cosby she didn’t want to have sex, the suit said. Cosby raped her and she was unable to stop him because of the booze he consumed, the lawsuit said.
Bernard is one of five women who sued Cosby in New York in December, accusing him of sexual assault after she met him on the set of “The Cosby Show.” His representatives have denied the accusations.
The other women in the suit have also similarly alleged that Cosby drugged them before attacking them:
Kirkpatrick alleges she met Cosby in 1981 while playing tennis in Las Vegas, where he invited her to a show. She alleges that he gave her a drink backstage and she passed out shortly after drinking it. Kirkpatrick woke up on the floor of Cosby’s dressing room with Cosby on top of her and assaulting her, according to the lawsuit. Cooper met Cosby at a health club where she worked as a massage therapist, according to the lawsuit. He invited her to dinner and to one of his shows and also sought her services to help with a tennis injury, according to the lawsuit. Cooper was offered a drink that he now believes spiked, he said. She said she started having trouble walking to her dressing room and alleges Cosby raped her. Dickinson was invited by Cosby to Lake Tahoe to discuss job opportunities in 1982, the lawsuit said. He offered Dickinson a pill while they were out to dinner after Dickinson complained of cramps, according to the lawsuit. She felt disoriented and dizzy soon after and went to Cosby’s suite with him, she said. Dickson says that there, Cosby raped her while ignoring her pleas for him to stop, the lawsuit said. Leslie was invited to Las Vegas by Cosby in the late 1980s or early 1990s after he expressed a desire to mentor her in her acting career, according to the lawsuit. Cosby offered her a drink in a suite, where they were working on an acting exercise, the suit said. Cosby covered Leslie’s hand in lotion and forced it on her genitals, she alleged. Leslie fought him off when he tried to climb on top of her, the lawsuit said, then told him to leave because he had a phone call. Abeyta traveled with a friend from California to Las Vegas in 1979 and was introduced to Cosby in his dressing room after one of his shows, according to the suit. She was invited to attend a dinner with Cosby and others the next evening, at which she was “provided a drink,” according to the suit. When Abeyta began to feel dizzy, she was helped back to Cosby’s suite, where he joined her after dinner, she alleged. Cosby then “put a pill” in her mouth without her consent, the lawsuit said. She woke up later in Cosby’s room with him naked on top of her, and remembered that the bed was wet, the suit said. Abeyta alleged that Cosby gave her another pill when she regained consciousness and that she woke up with bruises on her legs.
Cosby also faces a civil lawsuit in California, filed this month by former Playboy model Victoria Valentino. She has accused Cosby of drugging and raping her in 1969, which she has also denied.
