A Los Angeles court has found comedian Bill Cosby guilty of sexually assaulting Judy Huth in 1975, and ordered him to pay $500,000 to the victim.
The jury found that Cosby intentionally caused harmful sexual contact with Hoth, who was under 18, and that his behavior was motivated by an abnormal or abnormal sexual interest in a minor.
The decision ends one of the last remaining legal cases against Cosby, 84, who has been accused by more than 50 women of sexual assault over five decades.
Hoth testified to the court that she and her friend met Cosby in a park, and that the actor later took her and her friend to the Playboy mansion. She testified that Cosby, who was 37 at the time, assaulted her and forced her to perform a sexual act without her consent, an allegation the actor denied.
Huth, who first sued Cosby in 2014, said the incident occurred in 1974 when she was 15, but later concluded that she was wrong about the year and that it happened in 1975.
Cosby, who did not appear personally at the trial, denied the claim. In a video affidavit presented to the jury, Cosby said he did not remember Hoth but said the incident could not have occurred because he would not have had sexual contact at the time with someone who was under 18.
Huth’s attorney thanked the jury for her verdict and praised her client for her “courage and sacrifice to win this case.”
The trial took place nearly a year after the actor was released from prison in Pennsylvania, when his conviction for drugging and sexual assault of another woman was overturned.
The state’s Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s conviction on technical grounds last year and he was released after just two years in prison, dealing a heavy blow to his accusers, at the time.