A California jury just hit Bill Cosby with a massive $59.25 million judgment after finding him liable for drugging and sexually assaultingDonna Motsinger back in 1972.
The verdict was given by the civil jury in Santa Monica on March 23, 2026. It came after almost two weeks of testimony. The civil jury decided that Cosby had committed sexual battery and sexual assault. In the first phase, the civil jury awarded Motsinger $19.25 million in compensatory damages. This was for past emotional suffering, $17.5 million, and future emotional suffering, $1.75 million. The following day, the same jurors awarded another $40 million in punitive damages. This came as a result of the civil jury’s decision that Cosby had acted with malice, oppression, or fraud.
Note that this is a civil case and not a criminal case. The burden of proof in civil court is much lower. It’s “more likely than not” as opposed to “beyond a reasonable doubt” in criminal court.
A tweet from X.
Motsinger, now aged 84 years, was working as a waitress in her thirties at The Trident restaurant in Sausalito when she first met Cosby. He was also in his thirties and was starting to make a name for himself as a comedian at the time.
“He befriended me and asked me to come to his stand-up comedy show at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos. He came in a limo and gave me wine and gave me two white pills that he said were aspirin,”
She said.
“After that, I only remember going in and out of consciousness with flashes of light.”
The next day, she woke up at home with most of her clothes off, only in her underwear and with the belief that she had been drugged and raped.
She first came forward with her story anonymously as “Jane Doe #8” during the civil lawsuit against Cosby by Andrea Constand in 2005. She came forward publicly in 2014 and now has filed her lawsuit in 2023.
Cosby, now 88, has always denied the allegation. His lawyers argued that Motsinger’s account was too speculative because she admits she has no memory of what actually happened while she was unconscious. In a deposition shown at trial, Cosby himself said he couldn’t remember whether he had sex with her. He never took the stand.
The defense hammered home that after 54 years there’s zero physical evidence. They also brought up Cosby’s old depositions where he admitted getting Quaaludes and sometimes giving them to women, but insisted everything was consensual.
California’s expanded statute of limitations for sexual assault cases is what made this decades-old claim possible. The trial centered on Motsinger’s testimony, plus “pattern evidence” from more than 60 other women who have made similar accusations against him, along with Cosby’s own past statements. (His 2018 criminal conviction in the Constand case was thrown out in 2021 on a technicality.)
The news took off after an X post from @mymixtapez broke the initial $19.25 million compensatory award. Reactions online were all over the place some people called it long-overdue justice for survivors, while others questioned trusting a 54-year-old memory with no physical proof and wondered if Cosby could even pay that kind of money.
Cosby’s legal team has already said they will appeal, and that process could drag on for months or years, possibly slashing or even wiping out the award. Motsinger released a statement saying:
“This verdict is not just about me it’s about finally being heard and holding Mr. Cosby accountable. I have carried the weight of what happened to me for more than 50 years… Today, a jury saw the truth.”
The case is another chapter in Cosby’s long string of legal fights, but he continues to maintain his innocence, and the judgment isn’t final yet.
