Although he was released from prison back in 2021—with his 2018 conviction on aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand vacated after he spent three years in jail—Bill Cosby has been getting hit with a slate of civil suits in recent months. Nine women came forward to sue Cosby over the summer, and now a tenth, Donna Motsinger, has just put forward a suit of her own, accusing Cosby of committing sexual battery against her in 1972.
As with the other accusers currently standing against him, Motsinger’s civil case against Cosby is possible due to recent “lookback” laws passed in a number of states (including California, where she filed, and where she says the assault takes place), which waive the two-year statute of limitations for damages related to sexual assault. And while the case itself is new, Motsinger is one of several women who’ve been accusing Cosby of assault for years—although her accusations against him didn’t become a direct part of his criminal trial, which focused solely on accusations from Constand.
Per Deadline, Motsinger’s account matches that of many other women who’ve come forward against Cosby over the years: She spent social time with Cosby, and began to feel unwell after drinking wine he’d given her. She says he then gave her a pill, which she believed was an aspirin, and remembers him putting his arms around her; subsequently, in the words of the lawsuit, she “woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on – no top, no bra, and no pants.” Motsinger, who was identified as “Jane Doe No. 1" in at least some of the documents surrounding the Cosby case, first came forward publicly with allegations against him in 2014, telling ABC7 News that, “These women are not lying. I’m not lying, it’s the honest to God truth.”
You can read the full text of Motsinger’s legal complaint against Cosby here.