Woman who sued Bill Cosby for sexual battery awarded $19.2 million

A woman who accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting her more than 50 years ago was awarded $19.2 million Monday by a Southern California civil jury, the plaintiff’s attorney said.

Punitive damages are still pending in the 2023 lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica by Donna Motsinger, who accused him of sexual battery, alleging he abused a waiter he met at a Northern California restaurant in 1972.

Cosby, 88, has denied the allegations. Representatives for Cosby did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cosby was convicted in a separate case in Pennsylvania on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018, after prosecutors accused him of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

That case was overturned in 2021 after the state Supreme Court overturned the sentence, finding he was denied protection against self-incrimination.

Cosby maintained his innocence in the matter, saying he never “changed my position or my story.”