Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case ends in a mistrial

Bill Cosby's sexual assault case in Pennsylvania has ended in a mistrial, but the comedian's civil lawyers are still fighting lawsuits against him by 10 women.

Currently, seven women have defamation suits pending in Massachusetts, while three more have defamation or sexual battery suits pending in California.

Mr Cosby has denied any wrongdoing.

The criminal case against Mr Cosby partly stems from the accuser’s related lawsuit.

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Prosecutors reopened a criminal investigation and filed charges in 2015 after Mr Cosby’s deposition in the woman’s 2005 lawsuit was unsealed, and they realised the 12-year statute of limitations for felony sexual assault had not yet expired.

Mr Cosby is being sued in Los Angeles by Judy Huth, who accuses him of forcing her to perform a sex act on him in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974, when she was 15. A trial date may be set later this month for the sexual battery case. Mr Cosby has given a sealed deposition in the case. Ms Huth's lawyer, Gloria Allred, said the scheduling of a second deposition was on hold because of the criminal trial.

Chloe Goins, a former model who said Mr Cosby drugged and sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, is also suing the comedian on sexual battery and other claims. Prosecutors rejected filing a case against Mr Cosby based on Ms Goins’s allegations, which they said investigators could not corroborate. A judge recently denied Mr Cosby’s motion to dismiss the case, and a trial has been scheduled for June 2018.

Defamation

The comedian also faces a defamation lawsuit by model Janice Dickinson, who claims Mr Cosby drugged and raped her in Lake Tahoe, California, in 1982. Mr Cosby is appealing against a ruling allowing Ms Dickinson’s case to proceed.

Seven women are suing Mr Cosby for defamation in separate lawsuits pending in Massachusetts, where Mr Cosby has a home in Shelburne Falls. They say he sexually abused them decades ago and then defamed them after they went public by having his agents deny the claims and brand them liars.

An eighth woman withdrew her lawsuit and a federal judge dismissed a ninth accuser’s case, finding her complaint inadequate.

The remaining plaintiffs are Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis and Angela Leslie.

Mr Cosby is seeking to have their cases dismissed. Ms Serignese and Ms Bowman attended the Norristown criminal trial. – (AP)