Bill Cosby’s 2018 felony sexual assault conviction was overturned earlier this year, but the 84-year-old comedian is now facing a civil suit in New Jersey’s Federal Court. Lili Bernard, an actress who appeared on the hit television series The Cosby Show claims that Cosby drugged and raped her in August of 1990 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. Cosby took such a liking to the young actress, and they became so close, the actress claims, that Cosby even encouraged Bernard to call him “Daddy.” But when she began to feel “symptoms of dizziness, an urge to vomit, and weakness” after Cosby allegedly provided Bernard with a non-alcoholic beverage in the hotel suite, she said she drifted in and out of consciousness. When she awoke, Bernard said that Cosby was naked on top of her while she told him “no.” By the next morning, the actress alleges that Cosby gave her money and provided transportation from the Atlantic City hotel back to New York where she was living. “Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted, battered and drugged Ms. Bernard on additional occasions,” the lawsuit claims.
© Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images
Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images
“I have waited a long time to be able to pursue my case in court,” Bernard said in a statement, “and I look forward to being heard and to hold Cosby accountable for what he did to me. Although it occurred long ago, I still live with the fear, pain and shame every day of my life.”
Bernard, along with other accusers, attended both of Cosby’s criminal trials outside of Philadelphia when he was tried for drugging and raping Andrea Constand in his home in 2004. While the first trial ended in a hung jury in 2017, the second jury found him guilty on all three counts of felony sexual assault one year later. He was jailed and registered as a sex offender. Cosby ended up serving more than two of his three-to-10-year sentence before his conviction was overturned in June due to technicalities. Not only was Cosby freed, Pennsylvania highest court ruled that he could no longer be tried again for the same crimes in criminal court.
In New Jersey, however, there’s a two-year window in which the state allows sexual abuse survivors to bring civil claims regardless of when an assault is alleged to have occured. As such, Bernard is seeking “an amount no less than” $25 million in damages, saying she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, including anxiety, nightmares, depression and severe physical pain.
Constand, who became the focus of the criminal trials, published a book this year, The Moment: Standing Up to Bill Cosby. Speaking Up for Women in which she recounts her experiences, and how she ultimately reacted after learning that Cosby would walk out of prison a free man. “I had a lump in my throat,” Constand told the New York Times. “I really felt they were setting a predator loose and that made me sick.”
To date, more than 60 women have come forward claiming that Cosby had drugged and/or sexually assaulted them during the past five decades. Cosby has always maintained his innocence. His spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said Cosby is “willing and able to take this fight to the highest court in these United States,” calling Bernard’s lawsuit “just another attempt to abuse the legal process.”
