California case against Cosby can proceed

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Woman says Cosby sexually molested her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974

California Supreme Court refuses Cosby's request to review the case

CNN  — 

The California Supreme Court has denied comedian Bill Cosby’s request to review a case against him, which means the civil suit filed by Judith Huth can continue at the trial level.

Huth claims she was 15 years old when she was sexually assaulted by Cosby at the Playboy Mansion in 1974. Gloria Allred represents Huth, and called the court’s decision a “huge, huge victory” for her client. Allred said she hopes to schedule a deposition for Cosby in the next 30 days.

Huth’s suit alleges that Huth was with a 16-year-old friend when they met Cosby while he was filming a movie at Lacy Park in Los Angeles, and that Cosby invited the girls to his tennis club the next weekend where “he served them alcoholic beverages and played games of billiards” with Huth – and the terms of the game were that she “was required to consume a beer every time Cosby won a game of billiards.”

She claims that she and her friend both told Cosby their ages. The suit also alleges that Cosby then took the girls to the Playboy Mansion. While there, Huth claims she went to use a restroom in a bedroom, as directed by Cosby, and that when she emerged from the restroom, Cosby was sitting on the bed and asked her to sit next to him.

“He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants, and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent,” the suit alleges.

Cosby’s attorneys petitioned the court to review the case in June for several reasons. Among them, they felt Cosby should not have been publicly named in the suit, in accordance with a California law on childhood sexual abuse cases. Cosby’s attorneys also claim Huth “10 years previously had attempted to sell the same story” to a tabloid, which his attorneys said would mean the statute of limitations would have expired on Huth’s case.

This case is separate from a lawsuit against him in 2005 filed by a woman named Andrea Constand, who similarly alleged that he sexually assaulted her. That case settled in 2006, but Constand’s attorney has filed motions requesting that a deposition that Cosby made in the case should be released, and that Constand should be allowed to speak to the media. The nearly 1,000-page deposition that Cosby made over four days in that case was released and obtained by CNN through the court reporting agency that recorded it.

Calls and messages to Cosby’s legal team were not immediately returned Wednesday. Cosby, through his lawyers, has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.