• New Jersey New Lawsuit Filed Against Bill Cosby in New Jersey for Alleged Rape
  • Four decades ago A former Playboy bunny accuses Bill Cosby of drugging and raping her

A former Playboy model who alleges Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her and another woman in his home in 1969 sued him Thursday under a new California law that suspends the statute of limitations on sexual abuse lawsuits.

In her lawsuit, Victoria Valentino, 80, claims she was an actress and singer 54 years ago, when she met Cosby, who is now 85. The comedian and actor later accosted her at a Los Angeles café, where he saw her crying over the recent drowning death of her 6-year-old son.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they report it publicly.

Cosby offered to pay for a spa treatment for Valentino and a friend, and then sent a chauffeured car to pick up the women for dinner. That night, at a steakhouse, Cosby gave each of them one pill, she testified at trial.

"Take! Take this," Cosby told them. "It will make you feel better. It will make us ALL feel better."

Cosby then took the women to his home, where Valentino passed out on a couch, and later woke up and witnessed him sexually assault his anonymous friend, according to the lawsuit. Court documents allege Cosby "had forced sexual intercourse" with Valentino while she was incapacitated by the drug.

Valentino's allegations follow lawsuits filed last year by six Cosby accusers in New York under a similar provision known as the "retrospective" law, which allows adults to file sexual abuse lawsuits for allegations that had fallen outside the statute of limitations.

The former "Cosby Show" star, accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by at least 60 women, has denied all allegations of sex crimes. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, and spent nearly three years in a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court overturned the conviction and released him in 2021.

His spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said Thursday that Valentino's lawsuit lacks "any evidence or facts" and that the so-called lookback laws violate constitutional rights meant to protect victims of crime and "those charged with a crime."

Victoria Valentino, center, whistleblower of abuse by Bill Cosby in 1969.Jacqueline LarmaAP

"What cemetery can Mr. Cosby visit to dig up potential witnesses to testify on his behalf?" Wyatt asked in a statement. "America continues to see that this is a formula to make sure that no more black man in America accumulates the American dream that Mr. Cosby secured."

The lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court was filed nearly two years after Cosby was released from prison when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction. They found that he gave incriminating testimony in a statement about the encounter only after believing he had immunity from prosecution. The trial judge and an intermediate appeals court had found no evidence of such immunity.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who claimed Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.

Seven other accusers received a settlement from Cosby's insurers following Pennsylvania's conviction in a defamation lawsuit they had filed in Massachusetts. Their lawsuit claimed Cosby and his agents belittled them by denying their allegations of abuse.

Valentino's lawsuit asks for a jury trial and asks for unspecified punitive damages.

  • United States
  • Bill Cosby
  • Sexual assault

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