Two actors who appeared on The Cosby Show are among five women suing Bill Cosby under a New York law that suspends the statute of limitations for lawsuits over decades-old sexual assault allegations. Lili Bernard, who says Cosby drugged and raped her on multiple occasions, appeared as a patient in the show's final season; Eden Tirl, who had a bit role as a police officer on the show, says the star groped her in his dressing room, CNN reports. Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson, and Cindra Ladd are also suing the 85-year-old. Gittens says Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her after inviting her to his Manhattan home to talk about working on The Cosby Show.
The suit names Cosby and three companies that ran The Cosby Show: NBCUniversal Media, Kaufman Astoria Studios, and the Carsey-Werner Company. The lawsuit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, which took effect on Nov. 24, giving accusers a yearlong "lookback window" to file civil lawsuits over sexual assaults, no matter how long ago the incidents allegedly occurred, Variety reports. Ladd, a former Hollywood exec, says Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969. The other four women suing Cosby under the New York law say they were assaulted in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
The lawsuits says the women were "sexually assaulted and battered by defendant Bill Cosby in the same or similar manner when he used his power, fame, and prestige … to misuse his enormous power in such a nefarious, horrific way," per CNN. It accuses the companies of negligence. Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt called the lawsuit frivolous and says Cosby, who was released from prison last year when Pennsylvania's top court overturned his sexual assault conviction, "looks forward to defending himself in court." (In a civil case in California earlier this year, a jury ordered Cosby to pay $500,000 to Judy Huth, who said Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1975, when she was 16 years old.)
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