Bill Cosby Sued Again for Sexual Assault After State Extends Statute of Limitations

A former Playboy model who was among the first women to come forward with rape allegations against Bill Cosby decades ago has filed a lawsuit against the comedian under a California law that extends the window to sue in sexual assault cases.

The suit from Victoria Valentino filed on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Cosby of raping her in 1969 may be the first in a series of suits in California against the 85-year-old, who’s facing an avalanche of similar civil litigation in New York. More accusers could sue utilizing the state law that gives them until the end of the year to sue regardless of how long ago the alleged assaults happened.

In a statement, Cosby’s spokesperson Andrew Wyatt denied the allegations. He said it’s “deeply disturbing and disappointing” that the statute of limitations was lifted in “sheer violation of all American’s Constitutional Rights.”

“What graveyard can Mr. Cosby visit, in order to dig up potential witnesses to testify on his behalf?” he added. “America is continuing to see that this a formula to make sure that no more Black Men in America accumulate the American Dream that was secured by Mr. Cosby.”

Cosby served more than two years of a prison sentence of up to ten years after he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault against Andrew Constand. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2021 due to a non-prosecution agreement with a previous district attorney.

Last year, a Los Angeles jury found Cosby liable for sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1975.

In her suit, Valentino says she met Cosby in 1969 when she auditioned for an acting role. Later that year, she says Cosby approached her and a friend at Café Figaro in Los Angeles after he saw her crying over the death of her son. He offered to pay for the both of them to get a stream bath at a spa, and then meet them at a Sunset Strip steakhouse for dinner. There, she alleges Cosby gave them pills.

“Here! Take this! It will make you feel better,” Valentino says Cosby told her in the complaint. “It will make us ALL feel better.”

Cosby then drove them to his office, where Valentino says she fell unconscious and awoke to being raped.

“Plaintiff shook her friend awake and they attempted to use the phone inside the office, but it was a prop phone and there was no phone jack,” writes Michael Reck, a lawyer for Valentino, in the suit. “Plaintiff and her friend ran out of the office building, disoriented, trying to figure out their location. They finally found a cab to take them back to Plaintiff’s house.”

Valentino alleges she has suffered severe emotional, physical, and psychological distress because of the sexual assault.

In an interview with The Washington Post in 2014, Valentino says she told her friend and fellow Playboy bunny, Francesca Emerson, of the rape. Emerson confirmed to The Post that Valentino recounted the incident to her decades ago. She could be called as a witness in the case.

Additionally, the suit looks to name unknown defendants who were “legally responsible in some manner for the events,” including agents, employees and joint ventures of Cosby.

In suit against Cosby filed in New York, five women sued multiple companies, including NBCUniversal, involved with The Cosby Show as well as the comedian. They said the companies knew or should’ve known that he was assaulting women on their premises but “did nothing to stop it” to continue profiting from the public perception that he was “America’s Dad.” The suit was filed under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which suspended time constraints on claims involving sex offenses for a one year period.

On Wednesday, Nevada passed a law eliminating the statute of limitations in civil sexual abuse cases involving adults.