Donna Motsinger was a waitress at the Trident in Sausalito, California, when Bill Cosby began coming in. He was recording a comedy album nearby. She was in her 30s. He befriended her, she says — then drugged and raped her after inviting her to a show.

That was 1972. On Monday, a civil jury in Santa Monica awarded her $59 million.

The breakdown: $19.25 million in compensatory damages, plus another $40 million in punitive damages after jurors found Cosby liable for sexual battery and assault. The verdict came after nearly two weeks of testimony and just over a day of deliberation.

Motsinger, now 84, filed her lawsuit in 2023 after California temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for certain sexual assault claims. She had first told her story anonymously in a 2005 lawsuit, one of dozens of women who accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.

“I have carried the weight of what happened to me for more than 50 years,” Motsinger said in a statement. “It never goes away. Today, a jury saw the truth and held him accountable. That means everything.”

Cosby, 88, denied the allegations. His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, called Motsinger’s rape claim “speculative” — noting she couldn’t remember what happened — and said they would appeal.

The verdict arrives at a strange moment for Cosby’s accusers. His 2018 criminal conviction in Pennsylvania was thrown out on procedural grounds after he’d served nearly three years. Civil courts have become the primary venue for accountability: in 2022, a jury ordered Cosby to pay $500,000 to Judy Huth, who said he assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion when she was 16.

Motsinger’s award is the largest yet. Whether she’ll see the money is another question.

Sources