Bill Cosby faces new sexual assault lawsuit

Bill Cosby is facing a new lawsuit from former Playboy model Victoria Valentino who accused the comedian of drugging and raping her as she sues him under new California law that lifted the statute of limitation

• Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy model, filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday 
• Cosby, 85, was previously convicted in April 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a basketball coach, Andrea Constand
• However, the comedian was freed from prison on a legal technicality  

Bill Cosby has been sued in California by a former Playboy model who claims that he raped her five decades ago.

Victoria Valentino, 80, filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday under a new law that lifted the statute of limitations on civil sex assault cases.

Cosby, 85, was previously convicted in April 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a basketball coach, Andrea Constand, in 2004. 

He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but only served three years of his sentence before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction. He was released on June 30, 2021. 

Over his entertainment career, Cosby has been accused of a slew of sexual crimes by at least 60 women – all of which he denies.  

Bill Cosby has been sued in California by a former Playboy model who claims that he raped her five decades ago

Victoria Valentino filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday under a new law that lifted the statute of limitations on civil sex assault cases

Victoria Valentino was chosen as the Playmate of the Month at the age of 19 in 1969

Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt told the Washington Post following the new lawsuit: ‘In my opinion, these women are not victims of sexual assault, they are victims of greed.’ 

The new California law, which has enabled Valentino to lodge her suit, allows sex assault accusers to seek damages – no matter how long ago the alleged crimes took place. 

Valentino claimed that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969 after they ran into one another at Los Angeles restaurant Café Figaro on Melrose Avenue. They had met earlier at an acting audition.

Valentino says she was crying because of the recent drowning of her six-year-old son when Cosby approached her. 

Valentino was dining with a friend at the time. He then paid for them to go to a Finnish spa, and then took the pair to a Sunset Strip steakhouse for dinner, where he gave them both pills. 

He allegedly said: ‘It will make you feel better. It will make us ALL feel better.’ 

Cosby then drove them to an office, she claims in the lawsuit, where she and her unnamed friend passed out. 

Valentino says she awoke, saw Cosby approaching her friend, and tried to protect her. But the lawsuit then claims Cosby got angry and raped Valentino. 

 Valentino attends a Vigil For Survivors who alleged Cosby assaulted them at Independence Hall on July 10, 2021

Cosby, center, celebrated after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sex assault conviction

Cosby has yet to respond to the new civil suit.  

At the time of the incident, Valentino was a popular model and was known for her 1963 centerfold photoshoot with Playboy. 

In an interview with the Washington Post, Valentino said: ‘It’s not about money, it’s about accountability. Rape steals something from you that cannot be repaired or restored.

‘It impacts everything in your life. It’s like a stone dropped into a still pool and all of those expanding ripples touch shores you could never have imagined.’  

The accuser, who lives in Arizona, first publicly discussed her rape claims in 2014, and attended court in Pennsylvania during the trial Cosby was convicted in. 

Following her alleged sexual assault in 1969, she moved to New Orleans, and then to the Southwest, where she became a registered nurse. 

Before filing the lawsuit this morning, Valentino told the Post  the scars of what she claims happened to her have stayed with her throughout the decades. 

In December, five women, including two actors who appeared on The Cosby Show, filed a lawsuit in New York accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting them.

The suit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which took effect on Thanksgiving and gives adult survivors of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their abusers even if the statute of limitations on their claims has expired.

The plaintiffs named the actor, Kaufman Astoria Studios Inc., The Carsey-Werner Company and NBCUniversal Media as defendants in the 34-page lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992 on NBC, was filmed at studios now controlled by Kaufman Astoria and produced by Carsey-Werner, according to the civil action.

All the defendants are ‘culpable and liable because they knew and/or should have known that Bill Cosby was sexually abusing, assaulting, and/or battering women, including on their premises, but did nothing to stop it,’ according to the complaint.

Wyatt called the civil action ‘frivolous’ and accused plaintiffs of seeking a payout.

‘We believe that the courts as well as the court of public opinion will follow the rules of law and relieve Mr Cosby of these alleged accusations,’ Wyatt said in a statement.

‘Mr Cosby continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.’

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