Comedian and actor Bill Cosby has been hit with another lawsuit alleging sexual assault, the latest in a long series of allegations and suits against the star from dozens of women. Singer Morganne Picard’s paperwork, which was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, alleges that Cosby drugged and raped her in the late 1980s.
Picard asserts that she was invited by Cosby to the set of “The Cosby Show” in 1987 after the actor said he wanted to help Picard with her career. According to the documents, Picard spent time with Cosby’s wife Camille and even came to see the actor as a “father figure.” According to the suit, Cosby told Picard that “The Cosby Show” team wanted to invite her on to be a guest singer on an episode of the show.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that between 1987 and 1990, Cosby “insisted and encouraged” Picard drink beverages he provided her. After doing so, “on multiple occasions” the singer found herself “extremely intoxicated” and blacked out.
On one such occasion, Picard “drank a beverage provided to her by Cosby at his home, and awoke to find herself in a hotel room, naked, with soreness in her vagina.” While incapacitated, the documents allege, Cosby “raped or otherwise sexually assaulted” Picard “without her consent.”
NBCUniversal, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Astoria Studios LP II and the Carsey-Warner Company are also listed as defendants in the case on the grounds that the organizations did “not investigate, reprimand, supervise nor in any way try to stop Cosby from sexually abusing, assaulting and/or battering women.”
Picard is suing Cosby for battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. She is suing the studios and companies listed for “their negligence and negligent hiring, retention, and supervision.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Cosby’s representative Andrew Wyatt said that Cosby’s many accusers are “fueling false narratives for the potential of media fame and greed.” He added, “I am reminded of a photo a man hanging from a tree burning, as the plantation owner hosted a barbecue and party for the slaves as this Black Man was being roasted alive, without the sheer facts of any evidence, proof, truth or facts.”
Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women in claims that date back to 2000. The accusations span decades of Cosby’s career and include rape, sexual battery, sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. In December 2015 he was charged with three Class II felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in a trial that ultimately concluded in a 2017 mistrial.
Cosby was retried the following year and found guilty on all three counts. He was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison before his conviction was overturned in 2021 on a technicality. Cosby also previously admitted to having sex with multiple women after providing them with prescription sedatives.
In June 2023, former Playboy model Victoria Valentino filed a lawsuit accusing Cosby of drugging and raping her in 1969. She was preceded by nine women who filed a lawsuit in June 2023 that alleged Cosby “drugged, assaulted and raped them” between 1979 and 1992.
Picard’s lawsuit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, which has given victims a one-year window to sue alleged abusers in instances of sexual crimes — even if the statute of limitations has passed. That’s given women who had not come forward decades ago the ability to now file these cases. The one-year window will close on Nov. 24 of this year.
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