Bill Cosby Responds to New Lawsuit from Alleged Victim
Former model Victoria Valentino is suing Bill Cosby for sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed today, as reported by TMZ.
Valentino alleges that in 1969, Cosby met her and a friend at a restaurant, where, she said, "He was trying to cheer me up, and he stuck a pill in my mouth. He said, ‘This will make us all feel better,’” which she recounted to The Washington Post when she first came forward in 2014.
She said that soon, “We were slurring words. I couldn’t function," and Cosby offered to drive them home, instead taking them back to an apartment, where he raped her.
Valentino wasn't able to sue Cosby until now. At the start of this year, California instituted Assembly Bill 2777, which allows survivors of sexual assault to file civil suits even if the assault happened outside of the statute of limitations, as explained by The National Law Review.
The accused's rep, Andrew Wyatt, released a statement to TMZ on behalf of Cosby in response to the suit that said, "Media needs to vet Victoria Valentino cautiously and carefully -- because she has changed her alleged accounts of sexual abuse at the hands of Mr. Cosby over 10 to 15 times."
The statement continued, "It's unfortunate that the statute of limitations were put in The Constitution to protect victims and those who are accused -- and it seems that our political figures are caving to being click baiters and accumulating likes as opposed to vetting these allegations made by alleged accusers and moving swiftly to create these look back windows -- which are only being created because they incorporate Bill Cosby's name."
"This is bigger than Bill Cosby. This is a target against every black successful man in America like Lebron James, Will Smith and President Obama," it concluded.
Cosby was previously convicted of sexual assault in 2018 and served around three years in jail. The conviction was thrown out in an appeal due to a technicality in 2021, allowing him to walk free. He has faced many more sexual assault accusations, but most were outside the statute of limitations.
In 2022, the court sided with Judy Huth in a civil suit in which she accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 16 years old. They awarded her $500,000, although The Mercury News reported late last year that the 85-year-old appealed the ruling after he was denied a retrial.
He is also facing a lawsuit from five women in the state of New York that was filed in December 2022, as reported by Variety, with the plaintiffs all alleging that Cosby raped or sexually assaulted them.