First Sexual Assault Trial Against Bill Cosby Since Jail Release Begins

• Opening arguments began in the first sexual assault case against Bill Cosby since he was released from jail last year.
• Judy Huth alleges that Cosby molested her at the Playboy mansion in 1975 when she was a minor.
• On Wednesday, a Santa Monica jury heard testimony from Huth’s friend who was with her that day.

Opening arguments began Wednesday in the first sexual assault case to move forward against Bill Cosby since his early release from jail in 2021.

Judy Huth originally filed her civil lawsuit against Cosby in December 2014, alleging that Cosby molested her at the Playboy mansion when she was a minor.

In the December 2014 lawsuit, Huth claimed she met Cosby when she was 15 at Lacy Park in San Marino, California in 1974. Huth claimed in the lawsuit that she and a friend saw Cosby on set filming a movie in the park, and that he invited the two girls to watch him film “Let’s Do It Again.”

Over the next days, Huth alleged that she and her friend were invited to Cosby’s tennis club, where they were given drinks and then invited to the Playboy Mansion. Huth alleged that Cosby told her and her friend to tell the greeters at the mansion that they were 19 years old. Huth claimed that at the mansion, Cosby brought her to a bedroom where he first tried to put her hand in his pants and then made her fondle him.

Huth’s friend, Donna Samuelson, then 17 and now 64, took the stand as the trial’s first witness on Wednesday, testifying that Huth was visibly upset after her friend alleged that Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion.

“She said ‘I want to go, I wanna leave,’ she was crying,” Samuelson said, according to The Associated Press. Samuelson said she was angry with Huth until her friend explained what had just happened.

Samuelson said she convinced Huth to stay at the mansion after Huth explained what happened in the bedroom, The AP reported. Cosby had already left and had plans to return to the mansion later. Huth told her friend that she didn’t want to go to the police or tell anyone else about what Cosby had done, Samuelson testified.

“I thought it would calm her down to go swimming and stuff,” Samuelson testified, according to the outlet. “I said, ‘We’ll leave as soon as he gets back.'”

Samuelson told the jury that butlers at the mansion brought the girls swimsuits in special sizes and colors while they lounged at the pool and ordered alcoholic drinks.

When Cosby returned to the mansion, Samuelson said he put his arm around Huth, prompting the girls to get up and leave. But as they were making their departure, Hugh Hefner and his then-girlfriend Barbi Benton walked in and Cosby introduced them all, Samuelson said, according to the AP.

Several times during Wednesday’s testimony, the jury was shown two photos that Samuelson shot of Cosby and Huth that day, the outlet reported.

 

AP Photo/Anthony McCartney, File

Jennifer Bonjean, a lawyer for Cosby, accused Huth and Samuelson of using the photos to “hatch a plan” and “cash in” on the pictures, calling Huth’s allegations “a complete and utter fabrication.”

During her opening arguments, Bonjean also focused on the girls’ decision to stay at the mansion after the alleged assault.

“Boy did Judy and Donna enjoy themselves. They stayed for 12 hours,” Bonjean reportedly said. “There’s no typical response to a traumatic event but partying at the Playboy Mansion does not seem consistent.”

Huth’s attorney, Nathan Goldberg, meanwhile, said his client did suffer from the trauma, responding to the event by smoking lots of weed and entering volatile relationships.

“She was no longer the happy-go-lucky girl she had been,” Goldberg said, according to the AP.

Huth’s case was on hold as Cosby served jail time for his criminal sexual assault charges before he was released. In June 2021, Cosby’s criminal conviction on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in 2004 was overturned.

The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court that threw out Cosby’s conviction found that his due process rights were violated. The decision bars a retrial of his case and came as a result of a deal with a former prosecutor, which prevented Cosby from being criminally charged in the case. With that deal and because this case is civil, Cosby cannot go to jail even if found guilty in Huth’s case.

She also reported the allegations to the LA County DA’s office, which did not pursue criminal charges because of the statute of limitations law at the time, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Ultimately, Huth’s case was able to move forward in court because of a change to California’s statute of limitations law in 2020, linked partially to the US Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team’s sexual assault suit against Larry Nassar. It allows adults who claim to have been victims of sexual abuse as minors – having repressed the memories – to file claims.

While Cosby was in jail, 11 other civil cases were settled. Ten of them were settled by his former insurance company, his legal team told The New York Times.

In a May 5, 2022 court filing, Huth’s team changed the date of the allegations from 1974 to 1975 – which has drawn the ire of Cosby’s team.

Huth’s attorneys argued that due to materials sourced during discovery from Cosby’s team, like archival evidence as well as a photo of Huth and Cosby during the filming of “Let’s Do It Again,” the shooting and visit to the mansion happened a year later than she had recollected.

Ahead of the trial, Cosby’s legal team called the date change “trial by ambush” and called for the case to be dismissed. Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s spokesman told The Times in late May that “We feel confident that the Playboy records along with Ms. Huth changing her timeline of events from 1974 to 1975 in the 11th hour will vindicate Mr. Cosby.”

Cosby’s lawyers have said that he will invoke the fifth amendment, and not testify or show up to any of the trial. Cosby has denied Huth’s allegations as well as allegations of sexual assault from more than sixty women.