Bill Cosby Faces Sexual Assault Lawsuit Involving Nine Women in Nevada

Disgraced comedian, actor and The Cosby Show star Bill Cosby faces a new set of sexual assault allegations, this time from a group of nine women based in Nevada. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Nevada on Wednesday, June 14, the women allege that Cosby, 85, “used his enormous power, fame and prestige, and claimed interest in helping them and/or their careers, as a pretense to isolate and sexually assault them,” per The New York Times.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a law that eliminates a two-year deadline for adults to file sexual assault cases. The plaintiffs – Janice Dickinson, Lise Lotte-Lublin, Janice Baker Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta and Angela Leslie – claim that they were drugged and abused by Cosby between 1979 and 1992. The women also allege that the assaults took place in hotels, dressing rooms and homes located in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe.

According to the lawsuit, Lotte-Lublin, who’s from Nevada and supported Lomardo’s “lookback law,” alleges that Cosby gave her spiked drinks and raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 1989.

“For years I have fought for survivors of sexual assault and today is the first time I will be able to fight for myself,” Lotte-Lublin told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “With the new law change, I now have the ability to take my assailant Bill Cosby to court. My journey has just begun, but I am grateful for this opportunity to find justice.”

Lili Bernard, a visual artist and actor who once guest-starred on The Cosby Show, is also suing Cosby in New Jersey, alleging that he drugged and sexually assaulted her in a hotel in 1990.

The two women are amongst approximately 60 who have accused Cosby of sexual abuse within the last decade, ranging from groping to rape. Earlier this year, the Little Bill creator was also at the center of a case where a former Playboy model, Victoria Valentino, says he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1969. Valentino was awarded $500,000 by a Los Angeles jury.

In 2018, Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault after Temple University staff member Andrea Constand said he drugged her and sexually assaulted her in 2004. After serving more than two years of a three to 10 year sentence, Cosby’s conviction was overturned, leading to his release in July 2021.