Donna Motsinger: 1972 Claim and $59.25M Cosby Verdict

Donna Motsinger, a former California waitress, won a $59.25 million civil jury verdict against Bill Cosby in March 2026 after alleging he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1972. The Donna Motsinger v. Bill Cosby verdict, delivered in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica, is one of the largest known civil judgments against Cosby and was made possible by a California law that temporarily revived time-barred sexual assault claims.¹

Who Donna Motsinger Is and What She Alleged

In 1972, Motsinger was a single mother working as a server at The Trident, a waterfront restaurant in Sausalito, California, popular with celebrities.² According to her lawsuit, Cosby visited the restaurant repeatedly over about a week to talk with her and at one point used the restaurant’s payphone to call her young son, conduct her attorneys later described as grooming.³

She alleged that after one shift Cosby followed her as she drove home to Mill Valley, pulled alongside her car, and invited her to a stand-up performance he was giving that night at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos. She accepted. Cosby sent a limousine, and during the ride he gave her a glass of wine. The performance was being recorded for his comedy album Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby.³

At the theater, Motsinger said, Cosby took her to a backstage green room where members of his entourage were present. She began feeling ill and asked for an aspirin. Cosby gave her a pill. She then started slipping in and out of consciousness. Two men from the entourage placed her into the limousine with Cosby. She recalled only flashes from the ride before waking the next morning in her own home with her clothes removed except for her underwear.¹ She stated she “knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”⁴

Motsinger did not sue for decades. In 2005, she was one of roughly a dozen women identified as “Jane Does” willing to testify in Andrea Constand’s civil lawsuit against Cosby about their own experiences with him. That case settled before any Jane Doe testified.²

How a 1972 Claim Reached Court in 2026

The 1972 assault was long past any ordinary statute of limitations. Motsinger’s path to court opened in 2022, when California enacted the Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act (Assembly Bill 2777), adding Section 340.16 to the state Code of Civil Procedure. Under subsection (e), sexual assault claims that had been barred by time could be revived and filed between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, if the plaintiff alleged that one or more legally responsible entities had engaged in a “cover up” of prior sexual assault allegations against the perpetrator. The statute defined a cover up as a concerted effort to hide evidence, including through nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements.⁵

Motsinger’s first amended complaint, dated September 2024, stated her claims were “revived under California Code of Civil Procedure § 340.16(e).” She named Cosby and his production company Jemmin, Inc., along with MCA Inc. and Circle Star Theater Corp., and alleged four causes of action: sexual battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and false imprisonment.³

The Trial in Santa Monica

Trial began in March 2026 before Judge Bradley S. Phillips at the Santa Monica branch of Los Angeles County Superior Court and lasted nearly two weeks.⁶ Motsinger was 84.⁷ Cosby, 88 and legally blind, did not testify.⁸

Andrea Constand, whose 2018 criminal conviction of Cosby was later overturned, testified as a witness for Motsinger. She was the first of three women Motsinger’s attorneys planned to call to describe their own alleged abuse by Cosby. Constand told the jury about a 2004 incident at Cosby’s Philadelphia-area home, where she said he gave her three pills that incapacitated her before sexually assaulting her, describing herself as “really shocked, humiliated” and “pretty fearful.”⁷

During the punitive damages phase, Motsinger’s team presented an expert who estimated Cosby’s net worth at roughly $128 million. Cosby disputed the figure, saying in a deposition that his finances had “gone down like a submarine with no motor,” that he had not earned entertainment income in about a decade, and that he had faced foreclosure on two New York properties and sold a Manhattan townhouse for $28 million.⁹

Cosby has denied assaulting anyone.¹⁰ His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean of the Bonjean Law Group, argued in filings that Motsinger’s allegations “rested almost entirely on speculation and assumption” and that she “freely admits that she has no idea what happened.”⁸ In the punitive phase, Bonjean told jurors that Cosby “is not a threat,” calling him a “blind 88-year-old man” who “can’t leave his house,” and said the case was “not about providing deterrence.”

Judge Phillips excluded evidence of Motsinger’s 1970s-era use of LSD and marijuana, ruling it “irrelevant, prejudicial and improper character evidence.” Cosby’s team objected, arguing the ruling “sanitized plaintiff” and cast her in a “false light,” and also contended the court wrongly barred police notes said to contain prior inconsistent statements by Motsinger.¹¹

How the $59.25 Million Verdict Breaks Down

On March 23, 2026, the jury found Cosby liable for sexual assault and sexual battery. In the first phase, jurors awarded Motsinger $19.25 million in compensatory non-economic damages: $17.5 million for past harm and $1.75 million for future suffering, including mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress.¹²

The trial then moved to a separate punitive damages phase, where the jury found Cosby had acted with “malice, oppression, or fraud” and added $40 million in punitive damages, bringing the total to $59.25 million.¹² According to CBS News, the award was “likely the most” Cosby has ever been ordered to pay in a single case, dwarfing the $500,000 verdict a jury returned in 2022 for Judy Huth, who alleged Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1975.⁶

Motsinger said in a statement afterward: “This verdict is not just about me — it’s about finally being heard and holding Mr. Cosby accountable. I have carried the weight of what happened to me for more than 50 years. It never goes away. Today, a jury saw the truth and held him accountable. That means everything. I hope this gives strength to other survivors who are still waiting for their moment to be heard.”⁸

Post-Trial Motions and Appeal

In April 2026, Cosby’s attorneys filed motions for a new trial and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. They argued the $59.25 million award was “presumptively excessive,” representing roughly a third of Cosby’s estimated net worth, and that the jury had acted out of “passion and prejudice.”¹³

On May 29, 2026, Judge Phillips denied both motions. He ruled Cosby “has not shown that there was any irregularity in the proceedings or any order or abuse of discretion by the Court that prevented defendant from having a fair trial; that either the compensatory or punitive damages are excessive; that the evidence was insufficient to justify the verdict or that the verdict is against law; or that there was any error in law.”¹¹ Bonjean stated after the March verdict that Cosby “fully intend[s] to appeal.”⁸

Where This Case Fits in Cosby’s Legal History

Cosby has been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting at least 60 women over several decades.⁶ His 2018 Pennsylvania conviction for aggravated indecent assault of Andrea Constand was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on June 30, 2021, on the ground that prosecutors had used testimony Cosby gave in reliance on a prior non-prosecution agreement. The court called the prosecution “an affront to fundamental fairness” and barred any retrial.¹⁴ The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that decision in March 2022.¹⁵

With criminal prosecution foreclosed, California’s revival statute opened a civil route for accusers whose claims had been time-barred. Motsinger took that route, filing suit in 2023, more than half a century after the night at the Circle Star Theater.

1
NBC News. Woman Who Sued Bill Cosby for Sexual Battery Awarded $59.25 Million
2
ABC7 News. Former Bay Area Woman Accuses Cosby of Rape
3
Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP. First Amended Complaint, Motsinger v. Cosby
4
BBC News. Bill Cosby Found Liable for Drugging and Sexually Assaulting Woman
5
California Legislative Information. AB-2777 Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act
6
CBS News. Bill Cosby Lawsuit Over 1972 Sexual Assault
7
New York Times. Andrea Constand Testifies at Bill Cosby Civil Trial
8
ABC7 New York. Donna Motsinger Awarded $59.25 Million in Civil Trial
9
Washington Times. Bill Cosby’s Net Worth: Disgraced Actor Ordered to Pay $59.25 Million
10
New York Times. Bill Cosby Found Liable in Donna Motsinger Sexual Assault Lawsuit
11
Daily News. Bill Cosby Denied New Trial in Woman’s $59 Million Trial Verdict
12
Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP. PSR Obtains $59.25 Million Jury Verdict for Donna Motsinger
13
USA Today. Bill Cosby’s Request for New Sexual Assault Trial Denied
14
PBS NewsHour. Why Bill Cosby’s Conviction Was Overturned
15
SCOTUSblog. Justices Decline to Review Pennsylvania Ruling That Overturned Bill Cosby’s Conviction