Bill Cosby faces abuse claims from ten more women as Nevada judge allows for their lawsuit to proceed

Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby is facing claims of abuse from ten more women after a judge in Las Vegas allowed their lawsuit to proceed.

It comes after Nevada last year lifted the statute of limitations for civil claims by survivors of sexual violence.

US District Judge Gloria Navarro rejected Cosbys argument that the law violated his due process rights. 

The 87-year-old had also claimed the law went against the states prohibition on laws that only apply to a select group of people but this was thrown out as well. 

SB 129 was not enacted to punish perpetrators of sexual assault, but instead to compensate survivors and foster healing, Judge Navarro said according to Courthouse News.  

Bill Cosby in a mugshot released by the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in 2018 

Under Nevada law, there is no civil claim for sexual assault but all the women have alleged that Cosby raped and drugged them. 

However, the women have also brought claims for, assault, emotional distress, battery and false imprisonment which are not time-barred under the new statute.

Cosby has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women, including several who have filed lawsuits over the past year under the Adult Survivors Act. 

He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes.

The comedian was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court overturned the conviction and released him in 2021.

Last year, a woman who worked as a stand-in at The Cosby Show in the 1980s said in a lawsuit that Cosby had drugged and sexually abused her after offering to mentor her in her acting career.

The lawsuit was filed against Cosby under New Yorks expiring Adult Survivors Act, which has given victims of sexual abuse a one-year window for claims that would otherwise be barred by time limits. 

Comedian Bill Cosby arrives for sentencing at the Montgomery County Courthouse on September 24, 2018

The anonymous accuser said that soon after meeting Cosby while working on his show, he started offering style tips and performing acting exercises with her in his dressing room. 

When he invited her to his home, she accepted, she said, in part because of Cosby´s wholesome image as Americas Dad, according to the lawsuit.

Once there, she said she blacked out during an acting exercise after drinking wine apparently laced with an intoxicant. 

She awoke partially undressed and vomiting into a toilet, according to the lawsuit in state Supreme Court in New York.

An unidentified actor on the show later expressed to her that Cosby could do whatever he wanted to do with impunity at The Cosby Show, according to the lawsuit, which was seeking damages for battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.

A spokesperson for Cosby, 86, declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit at the time, but suggested that look-back windows in place in New York and elsewhere should be closed because they were being abused to go after wealthy celebrities.