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 for civil cases.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. 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 lawsuit.
They are Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Janice Baker Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta and Angela Leslie.
“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 abuses from groping to rape by more than 60 women, many of whom have allegations that are decades old but are being revived as states change statutes defining how courts handle sexual misconduct cases.
Andrew Wyatt, his spokesperson, accused the women suing Cosby of being motivated by their “addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed.”
“From this day forward, we will not continue to allow these women to parade various accounts … against Mr. Cosby anymore without vetting them in the court of public opinion and inside of the courtroom,” Wyatt said in a statement.
Cosby, 85, has consistently denied all allegations of sexual abuse.
Cosby has no criminal convictions, but he was found civilly liable last year of having molested Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1975, when she was 16. His attorneys called her a liar.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo on May 31 signed SB129, 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 forth their cases in court.
Lublin, a Nevada native, is one of the women named in the suit. She and other Cosby accusers advocated for the new legislation that made this new civil claim possible.
Lublin has publicly accused Cosby of drugging her at a hotel in Las Vegas in 1989, alleging that she met him at his room so he could evaluate her acting with an improvisation. According to the lawsuit, Cosby gave her two drinks that he said would “help her relax,” but they caused her to feel disoriented, and he embraced her a short time after.
Cosby grabbed her wrists and held them between his legs, touching her hair as he masturbated, the suit said. Lublin alleged that she was dragged into a bedroom and assaulted, the suit said.
Baker-Kinney was invited to a party at Cosby’s home in Reno, Nevada, in 1982, the lawsuit said, but when she arrived, Cosby was home alone. According to her account, Cosby offered her what she believed were barbiturates and lost consciousness.
She briefly woke up with her pants undone and Cosby’s hand in her open blouse before Cosby moved her to a bedroom, the lawsuit said. When Baker-Kinney next gained consciousness, she was naked in bed with Cosby and he was groping her, according to the lawsuit.
Baker-Kinney testified against Cosby in 2018 in his Pennsylvania criminal case, in which he was charged with three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault. Cosby was initially convicted in the 2018 trial of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, but Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court vacated his conviction in 2021. The court found that he was denied protection against self-incrimination.
Thomas also testified in the Constand case, saying he flew her to his home in Reno under the pretense of helping her career. The lawsuit says she traveled from Denver in 1984 with the impression that Cosby was going to offer her a mentoring session.
After she struggled with performing a scene portraying an intoxicated character, Cosby offered Thomas an alcoholic beverage to help her, the lawsuit said. She sipped the drink, lost consciousness and woke up to Cosby’s assaulting her, according to the lawsuit.
Bernard met Cosby in 1990, and he offered to mentor her, the lawsuit said.
Cosby asked her to travel to Las Vegas in the fall of 1990, and she was promised a meeting with producers for “A Different World” but was drugged as she drank a nonalcoholic beverage, the suit said. She joined Cosby in his hotel suite for a “mentoring session,” according to the suit.
Bernard said that she drank what she was told was nonalcoholic sparkling cider but that she now believes Cosby spiked the beverage. She later woke up naked, with Cosby naked by her feet, and she told Cosby that she did not want to have sex, the suit said. Cosby raped her, and she was unable to stop him because of the drink she consumed, the suit 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 allegations.
The other women in the lawsuit have also similarly alleged that Cosby drugged them before he assaulted them:
- Kirkpatrick alleges that she met Cosby in 1981 playing tennis in Las Vegas, where he invited her to a show. She alleges that he gave her a beverage backstage and that she blacked out shortly after she drank 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, the lawsuit said. He invited her to dinner and one of his shows and also asked for her services to help with a tennis injury, according to the suit. Cooper was offered a drink that she now believes was spiked, it said. She said she began having trouble walking on the way to his dressing room and alleges that Cosby raped her.
- Dickinson was invited by Cosby to Lake Tahoe to discuss work opportunities in 1982, the lawsuit said. He offered Dickinson a pill while they were out at dinner after Dickinson complained of cramps, according to the suit. She felt disoriented and dizzy shortly afterward and went to Cosby’s suite with him, it said. Dickson says that there, Cosby raped her while he ignored her pleas for him to stop, the suit said.
- Leslie was invited to Las Vegas by Cosby in the late 1980s or the early 1990s after he expressed a desire to mentor her acting career, according to the lawsuit. Cosby offered her a drink at a suite, where they were working on an acting exercise, the suit said. Cosby covered Leslie’s hand in lotion and forced it onto his genitals, it alleged. Leslie fought him off when he tried to climb on top of her, the lawsuit said, and he later told her 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, the suit said. She was invited to attend a dinner show with Cosby and others the next evening, at which she was “provided with a beverage,” according to the lawsuit. When Abeyta began to feel dizzy, she was assisted back to Cosby’s suite, where he joined her after the dinner show, it alleged. Cosby then “put a pill” in her mouth without her consent, the suit said. She woke up later in Cosby’s bedroom with him naked on top of her, and she recalled the bed being wet, the suit said. Abeyta alleged that Cosby gave her another pill when she regained consciousness and that she woke to 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 her and raping her in 1969, which he has also denied.
