Not making excuses for Bill or anything but, what was a 15 year old doing at the Playboy Mansion anyway? 🤧
Bill Cosby’s attorneys were in court on Wednesday on behalf of him for an upcoming civil lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in 1974.
According to his attorneys, Bill Cosby is deciding to invoke his 5th Amendment right to remain silent amid fears he could be prosecuted again.
As far as the woman who is taking him up in civil court, after all these years, her name is Judy Huth and she alleges Cosby gave her and a friend some pills and alcohol at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion in California when she was 15, before sexually assaulting her.
She sued Cosby in civil court in 2014 but the case was put on hold in 2016 amid the criminal case against the comedian.
Huth is one of at least 60 women who have accused the disgraced comedian of sexual assault and misconduct over the years but, due to the statute of limitations expiring in many cases, Cosby was only ever convicted of assaulting one woman.
He was sentenced in 2018 to three to 10 years for drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his home in Pennsylvania in 2004.
However, his conviction was overturned in a stunning ruling in June after Pennsylvania's highest court found that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor's promise not to prosecute Cosby.
The court found that the promise not to charge him led Cosby to incriminate himself in testimony that was later used to put him away.
Cosby's attorney Michael Freedman said in a status conference report made public Wednesday, and seen by the Hollywood Reporter, that Cosby will not risk putting himself in that position again when it comes to Huth's civil case.
'It is well-settled that the Fifth Amendment protects both the innocent and the guilty.'
He said that after 'an unlawful three-year incarceration', Cosby will be invoking his right not to answer questions if he is called to give testimony in the suit.
'Having already been forced to face a malicious criminal prosecution that resulted in an unlawful three-year incarceration, Defendant is not confident that such a risk does not still exist in this jurisdiction and others,' he said.
Freedman also said LA authorities had said the criminal investigation into Huth's complaint is still open.
'Indeed, prior to a stay being entered in this case, LAPD claimed that the Huth matter is an open criminal investigation,' he said. ‘Thus, Defendant anticipates that if he is forced to sit for a deposition, he will exercise his Fifth Amendment guarantees absent a court order ruling that he has no Fifth Amendment right in this jurisdiction or any others.'
The attorney also vowed to challenge a change in California civil law last year that abolished the statute of limitations for child sex assault claims.
In January 2020, California gave childhood sexual assault survivors up until their 40th birthday or within five years of the discovery of the abuse to file a civil lawsuit.
The change in law also gives victims a three-year window to file claims that could not be filed under previous laws.
Huth was a minor at the time of the alleged assault, making her potentially eligible for this three-year window.
Cosby's attorney argued that the new law could be unconstitutional and the suit legally out of bounds. He was ordered to sit for a deposition in the Huth case back when it was filed but refused to answer questions that time.
Huth's attorney Gloria Allred said last month that, now he is no longer facing criminal charges, he cannot invoke the Fifth during a second deposition in the suit.
'Because the criminal case was pending, the taking of the second deposition was stayed,' Allred told USA Today. ‘Now we will be able to take the deposition and he won't be able to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights because there are no criminal charges pending against him. ‘There are many questions I want to ask him. He will be compelled to answer them.'
Allred, who represents 33 of Cosby's accusers, has vowed to fight for justice in civil court.
Cosby has always maintained he is innocent on all allegations of sexual misconduct.
1974 chile? This is crazy. Sign in and sound off & kick your thoughts about this resurfaced civil suit and if you think it could land Pill i-mean Bill Cosby back in jail. See you soon -- until then, catch up on some syrup below and you know I'll talk to you later, bye!