Bill Cosby Faces New Sexual Assault Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, CA — Just two years after his release from prison in Montgomery County after being convicted on similar allegations, comedian Bill Cosby is facing a fresh sexual assault lawsuit.

The civil suit was filed in Los Angeles by former Playboy model Victoria Valentino, now 80. It alleges that Cosby, now 85, gave her a drug and raped her in 1969.

While the statute of limitations has passed, a new law passed in California earlier this year that lifts it for cases of sexual assault.

Valentino is one of numerous women who have filed formal sexual assault charges against Cosby, and is among dozens of accusers who have spoken out about the formerly iconic comedian’s behavior as a man in a position of power in a system that protected him and those like him for generations.

Cosby’s first and only criminal conviction came in 2018 in Montgomery County, when he was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a Temple University employee, a Andrea Constand.

However, he only served three years of that sentence, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overthrew the ruling based on a technicality in June 2021. Cosby was returned to his Cheltenham home to the cheers of a small cadre of ardent supporters and an upwelling of outrage from the woman who accused him and those convinced of his guilt.

The state Supreme Court ruling did not reject the points made by the prosecution in Cosby's 2018 criminal trial, and went as far as to acknowledge a "social interest" in holding powerful sexual abusers to account. Rather, the majority opinion was focused strictly on a 2005 immunity deal, which then-DA Bruce Castor said was made because there was insufficient evidence at the time to convict Cosby. In the testimony given as part of that deal, Cosby described giving quaaludes to women.