Bill Cosby, 85, is hit with ANOTHER rape lawsuit: Singer Morganne Picard claims he drugged and raped her – as Playboy model Victoria Valentino and nine other women sue for sexual assault
- Singer Morganne Picard has filed a lawsuit on Friday claiming Cosby, 86, drugged and raped her on multiple occasions between 1987 and 1990
Bill Cosby has been hit with another rape lawsuit just weeks after Playboy model Victoria Valentino and nine other women alleged he’d sexually assaulted them.
Singer Morganne Picard has filed a lawsuit on Friday claiming Cosby, 86, drugged and raped her on multiple occasions between 1987 and 1990.
She is also suing NBCUniversal Media, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Astoria Studios Limited Partnership II and The Carsey-Werner Company over claims they ‘condoned and encouraged’ Cosby’s sexual abuse and assault of women by ‘doing nothing to stop it’.
Cosby was previously convicted in April 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a basketball coach, Andrea Constand, in 2004.
He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but only served three years of his sentence before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction. He was released on June 30, 2021.
Over his entertainment career, Cosby has been accused of a slew of sexual crimes by at least 60 women – all of which he denies.
Bill Cosby has been hit with another rape lawsuit just weeks after Playboy model Victoria Valentino and nine other women alleged he’d sexually assaulted them
Picard would black out after she drank a drink Cosby handed her multiple times, the lawsuit states.
She claimed Cosby raped or sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious on these occasions.
One time, she drank a beverage he provided to her at his home and woke up in a hotel room naked with soreness in her vagina, according to the lawsuit.
Picard said he provided her with drinks on multiple occasions from 1987 to 1990 and would encourage her to drink them at which point she felt extremely intoxicated.
‘Based on the relationship that Cosby fostered with Ms. Picard and his wholesome image as “America’s Dad,” Ms. Picard assumed that the extreme effects of the beverages were attributable to the effects of alcohol, rather than to drugs placed in the beverages from Cosby,’ the lawsuit stated.
It referenced a deposition filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and claimed ‘defendant Cosby admitted to obtaining drugs to use on women with whom he wanted to engage in sex’.
The lawsuit alleged Cosby placed an unknown intoxicant in the drinks he provided to Picard without her knowledge or consent.
Cosby is alleged to have ‘undressed and raped her, without her consent and when she did not have the capacity to consent’.
She claimed that when she drank the drugged beverages he gave her and blacked out, Cosby would rape or sexually assault her when she didn’t have the capacity to consent.
Picard was invited by Cosby to attend the set of The Cosby Show in 1987 under the pretense he would help her career as a singer, according to the lawsuit.
After meeting him, she met and spent time with his family including his wife Camille Cosby and she saw him as a father figure, the lawsuit states.
Cosby is alleged to have expressed that he wanted to hire her to appear and potentially sing on a special episode of his show.
Picard claims that NBCUniversal Media, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Astoria Studios Limited Partnership II and The Carsey-Werner Company are also culpable and liable.
‘They knew and/or should have known Cosby was sexually abusing, preying on, grooming, assaulting, and/or battering women using the power, authority, resources, and facilities they provided to Cosby, but did nothing to stop it,’ the lawsuit states.
It adds the companies ‘did not investigate, reprimand, supervise nor in any way try to stop Cosby from sexually abusing, assaulting and/or battering women.’
She alleges they condoned and encouraged Cosby’s sexual abuse, assault and battery of women including on company premises.
The lawsuit claims the companies did ‘nothing to stop it despite knowledge of his serial sexual abuse of women, and by providing Cosby with power, authority, resources, and facilities to access, groom, and sexually abuse women’.
Her claims against them are for their negligence and negligent hiring, retention, and supervision.
She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Cosby.
Dailymail.com has contacted Cosby’s representatives, NBCUniversal Media, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Astoria Studios Limited Partnership II and The Carsey-Werner Company for comment.
It comes after a former Playboy model sued Cosby in California in June over claims that he raped her five decades ago.
Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt told the Washington Post following the new lawsuit: ‘In my opinion, these women are not victims of sexual assault, they are victims of greed.’
The new California law, which has enabled Valentino to lodge her suit, allows sex assault accusers to seek damages – no matter how long ago the alleged crimes took place.
Valentino claimed that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1969 after they ran into one another at Los Angeles restaurant Café Figaro on Melrose Avenue. They had met earlier at an acting audition.
Valentino says she was crying because of the recent drowning of her six-year-old son when Cosby approached her.
Valentino was dining with a friend at the time. He then paid for them to go to a Finnish spa, and then took the pair to a Sunset Strip steakhouse for dinner, where he gave them both pills.
He allegedly said: ‘It will make you feel better. It will make us ALL feel better.’
Cosby then drove them to an office, she claims in the lawsuit, where she and her unnamed friend passed out.
Valentino says she awoke, saw Cosby approaching her friend, and tried to protect her. But the lawsuit then claims Cosby got angry and raped Valentino.
At the time of the incident, Valentino was a popular model and was known for her 1963 centerfold photoshoot with Playboy.
Two weeks later, nine woman launched a lawsuit against Cosby for sexual assault in June after a new law removed the statute of limitations for civil cases in Nevada.
The nine plaintiffs who lodged the suit in the U.S. District Court for Nevada are Janice Dickinson, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Janice Baker Kinney, Lili Bernard, Heidi Thomas, Linda Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Cooper, Pam Joy Abeyta and Angela Leslie.
The latest legal challenge accuses him of drugging and raping the women, including up-and-coming actresses and models, in Las Vegas. Many of the alleged abuses occurred after his shows, the suit states.
Cosby’s spokesman accused the nine women of fighting ‘for their addiction to massive amounts of media attention and greed,’ NBC News reported.
On May 31, Nevada passed a law named SB129 – eliminating the civil statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases involving adults.
Previously, alleged victims would have to file suits within a two-year limit.
It is through this new law that the nine plaintiffs have been able to sue for the alleged abuse they faced at the hands of the entertainer multiple decades ago.
Lublin has publicly accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her. She claims in the suit, seen by NBC, that he gave her two drinks ‘to relax’ in 1989, and then he proceeded to touch her hair as he masturbated.
The lawsuit alleges Lublin was dragged into a bedroom and assaulted.
Thomas claims in the suit that she traveled from Denver in 1984 under the pretense that Cosby was going to mentor her. He offered her alcohol, which she sipped, and she lost consciousness.
The lawsuit claims Thomas woke up to Cosby assaulting her.
Cooper worked as a massage therapist when she met Cosby. He invited her to dinner and one of his shows, the lawsuit states.
Cosby also asked for her to help with a tennis injury he had. Cooper claims he spiked her drink at the show, and later raped her in his dressing room.
Abeyta went to Las Vegas in 1979 and was introduced to Cosby in his dressing room after one of his shows. She was given a drink and taken to his suite when she started to feel dizzy, according to the lawsuit.
Cosby ‘put a pill’ in her mouth without her consent – and Abeyta woke up with him naked on top of her, she claims in the lawsuit. The bed was wet and she woke to bruises on her legs, it alleges.
Baker Kinney arrived at Cosby’s home Reno, Nevada, in 1982 for a party – but she soon realized he lied to her as no one else was there. She says in the lawsuit that he gave her barbiturates.
In the lawsuit, Baker Kinney describes waking in and out of consciousness with Cosby’s hand in her open blouse, groping her, while she lay naked in bed.
She was also one of the people who testified against Cosby in his 2018 criminal case.
Dickinson says that Cosby invited her to Lake Tahoe to discuss work opportunities in 1982. She was suffering from menstrual cramps, and Cosby offered her a pill to help, the lawsuit states.
Dickinson felt dizzy and went to Cosby’s suite with him – where he raped her, despite her asking him to stop, the lawsuit alleges.
In the lawsuit, Kirkpatrick claims she met Cosby in 1981 playing tennis in Las Vegas – and he gave her a beverage backstage at a show.
Kirkpatrick says she blacked out, then woke up on the floor of Cosby’s dressing room with Cosby on top of her and assaulting her, according to the lawsuit.
Bernard traveled to Las Vegas with Cosby, where he promised to take her to a meeting with movie producers. She claims in the suit that he drugged her non alcoholic drink and took her to his hotel suite for a ‘mentoring session.’
Bernard woke up naked with Cosby naked by her feet, the suit states. Cosby raped her after she told him she didn’t want to have sex. She was unable to stop him because of the drink she consumed, the lawsuit alleges.
Leslie was invited to Las Vegas by Cosby after he expressed a desire to mentor her acting career. They were working on an acting exercise in his suite when Cosby offered her a drink, according to the lawsuit.
He covered Leslie’s hand in lotion and forced it onto his genitals, she alleges in the lawsuit.
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