[attach id=387752 size="medium"]Actor Bill Cosby is facing accusations of sexual assault. Photo: Eric Thayer/Reuters[/attach]
A Southern California woman has sued Bill Cosby, claiming the comedian molested her in the 1970s when she was 15.
In the sexual battery lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Judy Huth claims the attack happened in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion in about 1974.
Huth and a 16-year-old friend first met Cosby at a Los Angeles film shoot and he gave them drinks a week later at a tennis club, according to the lawsuit.
Cosby took them to the Playboy Mansion after several drinks and told the teenagers to lie and say they were 19 if asked.
He later forced Huth to perform a sex act on him, the lawsuit claims.
Huth says she suffered severe emotional distress and discovered its impact on her within the past three years, which allows her to file the lawsuit under California law.
“This traumatic incident, at such a tender age, has caused psychological damage and mental anguish for [Huth] that has caused significant problems throughout her life,” the lawsuit states.
Huth’s sexual battery lawsuit does not specify how much she is seeking from Cosby, 77, who has in recent weeks faced renewed accusations that he drugged and sexually assaulted more than a dozen women over many years. He has denied the accusations, many of which date back to the 1970s and 1980s, and has never faced criminal charges.
But Huth’s lawsuit is the first time a woman has gone public claiming Cosby abused her when she was under age. A second woman told Pittsburgh television station KDKA last month that Cosby drugged her to the point of unconsciousness in the 1980s when she was 15.
Cosby resigned as a trustee of Temple University in Philadelphia on Monday, saying he did not want to be a distraction to his beloved alma mater.
Cosby’s lawyer Martin Singer has denied previous accusations or said the women raising the claims in interviews had been discredited. Singer’s statement does not apply to a lawsuit brought by former Temple basketball employee Andrea Constand in 2005, who claimed Cosby drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. She and Cosby settled the case before it went to court.
The accusations have put a significant dent in Cosby’s recent comeback efforts, forcing shows on his comedy tour to be cancelled and prompting Netflix and NBC to shelve projects featuring the comedian.