Pa. woman latest to sue Cosby for defamation
A Pittsburgh-area woman who appeared with Bill Cosby on a 1980s children's show has sued the embattled entertainer, alleging he defamed her after she publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her as a teenager.
A Pittsburgh-area woman who appeared with Bill Cosby on a 1980s children's show has sued the embattled entertainer, alleging he defamed her after she publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her as a teenager.
Renita Hill, 48, of Baldwin, said Cosby gave her alcohol and drugged and assaulted her on several trips the two took to Atlantic City and New York while she starred alongside him on Picture Pages, a show aimed at preschoolers, according to court filings Wednesday in Common Pleas Court in Allegheny County.
Like several other Cosby accusers, Hill alleges Cosby offered to pay her tuition to Temple University or Spelman College in Atlanta. He also paid her housing costs while at Spelman until her sophomore year, the lawsuit states.
Cosby assured Hill's parents "that he had her best interests at heart, and further assured them that he was helping Renita with both her educational and career pursuits," Hill's lawyers George M. Kontos and Katie A. Killion wrote. "He portrayed himself as a 'mentor' to Renita."
Cosby, 78, has not specifically responded to Hill's allegations but has repeatedly said he never sexually assaulted any of the more than 50 women who have now publicly accused him of abuse.
This latest lawsuit only adds to Cosby's ever-growing list of legal woes. Three other women have sued Cosby for defamation in courts in California and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Los Angeles and Montgomery County are mulling potential criminal charges tied to past alleged assaults, including that of former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, one of his earliest accusers.
Hill first publicly accused Cosby in a November interview with the Pittsburgh TV station KDKA. She said at the time that she felt emboldened to speak out by the dozens of other women who have come forward since last year.
According to her suit, she was 16 when she first met Cosby in 1983, while attending an audition for Picture Pages at a Pittsburgh bar.
She was cast on the show and soon began receiving invitations to travel with the comedian to cities where he was performing, such as Denver and Atlantic City, according to the suit.
The abuse continued for four years, Hill said, until she broke off contact with the comedian after her second year of college.
Her claims for sexual assault are time-barred under both Pennsylvania's criminal and civil statutes of limitations. However, she based her defamation suit on statements Cosby and his proxies have made in the media in response to the accusations against him.
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