In a lawsuit filed Friday with the New York Supreme Court, an anonymous accuser has brought new allegations against Bill Cosby dating back to 1992.
In the complaint, obtained by The Daily Beast, the woman (identified only as Jane Doe) alleges that she’d been invited to the Cosby Show set on approximately two occasions—purportedly, to discuss a guest starring role on the show. Instead, she alleges, Cosby sexually abused her during her second visit.
Cosby has consistently denied allegations of abuse. The former TV star’s publicist Andrew Wyatt told The Daily Beast via email, “The alleged allegations are utterly ridiculous and ludicrous and I refuse to elaborate or give any of these alleged distractors a platform.”
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In a separate email to The Daily Beast, Cosby’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean wrote, “We are going to enjoy fighting this ‘Jane Doe’ lawsuit, like all of the others. Unlike the mainstream media, we will ensure that these accusers' stories are vetted, challenged, and dismantled in a court of law. There will be no blank checks—not now, not ever. Eventually this country will see how a movement has become a money-making machine that has imperiled the fundamental constitutional underpinnings of our justice system.”
In addition to Cosby, Doe’s lawsuit names The Cosby Show’s distributor, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, as well as Kaufman Astoria Studios, Inc.—where the show filmed—and production company The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC as defendants.
The complaint alleges that the companies “condoned and encouraged Cosby’s sexual abuse, assault, and/or battery of women including on company premises by doing nothing to stop it despite knowledge of his serial sexual abuse of women, and by providing Cosby with power, authority, resources, and facilities to access, groom, and sexually abuse women.”
Attorneys for the named companies are not listed on the docket for this case. A representative for NBC did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment, and emails to Carsey-Werner and Kaufman Astoria Studios were not immediately returned.
According to the lawsuit, Doe visited the set in Queens, New York’s Kaufman Astoria Studios on the belief that she and Cosby would be discussing a potential guest starring role on The Cosby Show. During these visits, she alleged, she and a group of models and actresses sat separately from the rest of the studio audience.
On the second visit, the complaint states, Doe and other women were ushered toward Cosby’s dressing room. One actress allegedly went inside as the door remained closed; Doe allegedly waited outside with the other actresses and ex-NBC employee and an individual believed to be the late former NBC employee Frank Scotti.
After the first actress exited the dressing room, the complaint alleges, Doe entered next. “Upon information and belief, the individual believed to be Mr. Scotti remained standing outside Cosby’s closed dressing room door to ensure that Cosby could sexually assault and rape Ms. Doe without interruption,” the lawsuit states—and also, the lawsuit claims, to prevent Doe from escaping.
“Upon information and belief, Cosby had placed or had caused to be placed an unknown intoxicant in the beverage that Cosby provided to Ms. Doe, without Ms. Doe’s consent or knowledge,” the complaint states.
Doe allegedly lost consciousness after consuming a “small amount” of the drink. When she regained consciousness, the complaint states, “she was slumped down in a chair, her underwear had been removed, Cosby had his pants down, and Cosby was pulling his penis out from between Ms. Doe’s legs.” By the time Doe awoke next, the complaint continues, she was already home and didn’t know how she got there.
Two years ago, Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Cosby’s 2018 conviction for sexual assaulting Andrea Constand on the grounds that prosecutors had violated his rights by reneging on their public vow not to prosecute him. At the time, Constand and her attorneys said the decision could “discourage those who seek justice for sexual assault in the criminal justice system from reporting or participating in the prosecution of the assailant or may force a victim to choose between filing either a criminal or civil action.”
Six women testified during Constand’s trial, and dozens more have since come forward with rape and sexual assault allegations. As Doe’s lawsuit notes, Cosby has admitted under oath that he’d purchased drugs to use on women he wanted to have sex with. With her lawsuit, filed under the New York’s temporary Adult Survivors Act—the same law that allowed E. Jean Carroll to sue Donald Trump decades after he allegedly raped her—Jane Doe joins more than 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault.
