NORRISTOWN, PA - SEPTEMBER 25: Actor/stand-up comedian Bill Cosby arrives for sentencing for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse on September 25, 2018 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
A former Playboy model is suing Bill Cosby, 85, for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1969. Victoria Valentino, 80, filed the lawsuit against the actor and comedian in California on Thursday (June 1), per Associated Press.
Court docs reportedly claim that Victoria was one of two victims in the incident–though the second woman’s identity remains unknown.
In the suit, the 80-year-old described meeting Cosby at a Los Angeles café about 54 years ago. At the time, Valentino was reportedly mourning the drowning death of her 6-year-old son.
Bill Cosby, she says, approached her while she was crying and eventually offered to pay for a spa treatment for Valentino and a friend. He later allegedly provided a chauffeured car that brought the women to dinner at a steakhouse.
While dining, Valentino’s lawsuit says, Cosby offered both women an unidentified pill, saying, “Here take this…it will make you feel better, it will make us all feel better.”
AP’s report didn’t specify, but it seems that both women took the offered pills. After dinner, Cosby allegedly drove both women to his home. After entering the house, Valentino claims she passed out on a couch. When she woke up sometime later, Cosby was allegedly sexually assaulting her friend.
He then moved on to Valentino, also assaulting her while she could not fight back, allegedly due to the drug’s effect. Valentino says Cosby “engaged in forced sexual intercourse.”
It’s unclear what happened following the alleged assaults or if either woman came in contact with Bill after the incident.
Her lawsuit reportedly requests that Cosby undergo a jury trial for the attacks. Additionally, Victoria wants “unspecified punitive damages,” per AP.
Valentino is one of over 50 women who have accused Bill of a sex crime, including rape, sexual assault, and harassment, since the start of the #MeToo movement.
He was arrested in 2015 and underwent two trials–the first ending with a hung jury and the second leading to a guilty verdict on three counts of felony indecent assault in 2019. He was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison.
Evidence used in both trials included a 2005 deposition, where Cosby admitted giving women drugs known as quaaludes. However, his lawyers later argued that he gave that deposition in a civil case under the promise he wouldn’t be criminally persecuted, per Vulture.
Then, in May 2021, the Pennslyvania Supreme Court overturned the felony conviction due to that “non-prosecution agreement.” Today, Cosby remains a free man.
However, in June 2022, a jury found him liable in a civil sexual assault case brought forward by Judy Huth, who says Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1975 when she was 16. The jury awarded Judy $500,000 in damages with no punitive damages. Judy was reportedly the first of Cosby’s accusers to be granted a civil case trial.
It looks like Victoria may be aiming to become the second accuser to get a jury trial. She is suing under California’s new law, which overlooks the statute of limitations for sex abuse allegations.
