Invoice Cosby’s protection workforce sought to discredit Judy Huth in the course of the trial on plenty of factors. His legal professionals famous that she had modified the yr she mentioned she was assaulted, requested why she didn’t come ahead for many years and questioned her depiction of the encounter, suggesting she was an unreliable witness who had invented her account so she may file a lawsuit.
“I don’t assume you’ll be able to consider something Ms. Huth says, frankly,” mentioned Jennifer Bonjean, a lawyer for Mr. Cosby. “I’m not going to credit score her simply because we stay in a time the place, if she says it, it should be true,” she added. “There’s no proof.”
Ms. Bonjean famous that Ms. Huth had modified her recollection of when the episode occurred. Whereas Ms. Huth initially mentioned it had occurred in 1974, when she was 15, she extra lately concluded it was in 1975, when she was 16.
Ms. Huth mentioned she realized she had made a mistake concerning the date, partially as a result of she solely lately noticed {a photograph} of Mr. Cosby from 1975 carrying a beard and looking out like he had, she mentioned, after they went to the Playboy Mansion collectively.
Mr. Cosby’s protection workforce additionally questioned how Ms. Huth may have suffered what she described as callous sexual molestation on the Playboy Mansion after which, by her personal account, remained there for hours, swimming within the out of doors pool, ordering cocktails and mixing with celebrities.
Ms. Huth testified that she had been offended and wished to go away after the encounter, however her buddy Donna Samuelson, who accompanied her to the mansion, persuaded her to remain. Ms. Samuelson testified that she had wished Ms. Huth to relax.
And Mr. Cosby’s legal professionals requested why she had not come ahead along with her accusation for many years, solely deciding to file a lawsuit in December 2014, lengthy after the encounter in 1975.
Ms. Huth mentioned that she had solely come ahead in 2014 as a result of that was when she had acknowledged that the nervousness, despair and different difficulties she had suffered later in life had been attributable to what she described as Mr. Cosby’s sexual assault.
However Mr. Cosby’s legal professionals instructed that any emotional misery she had skilled in her life had grown out of any variety of different painful episodes, together with what she reported as being an encounter with a member of the family who tried to molest her as a younger little one. “She can’t show that there was causation between this incident and the alleged trauma 40 years later,” Ms. Bonjean mentioned.
Mr. Cosby’s authorized workforce accused Ms. Huth of pretending to have simply abruptly realized the emotional injury attributable to an occasion so a few years earlier as a result of that was what was required beneath California legislation for her to qualify to file a lawsuit many years later.
His legal professionals requested how she may solely have lately remembered the encounter when she had contacted a reporter from The Nationwide Enquirer about it 10 years earlier, and instructed she had been attempting to earn a living by promoting images of herself with Mr. Cosby. They launched the previous reporter, arguing that the reporter’s depiction of Ms. Huth’s encounter with Mr. Cosby contradicted Ms. Huth’s personal account from the stand.
Ms. Huth testified on the trial that Mr. Cosby took her hand and compelled her to carry out a intercourse act on him. However the reporter, Robin Mizrahi, in a private essay revealed in 2018, mentioned that Ms. Huth, recognized by a pseudonym within the essay, had mentioned in a 2005 interview that she was too scared to the touch Mr. Cosby and had solely watched as he carried out a intercourse act on himself.
However Ms. Huth denied that cash was her motivation for coming ahead and mentioned the essay was not correct.
Ms. Mizrahi, a witness for the protection, mentioned she, too, couldn’t vouch for her essay’s accuracy, saying she had tried to reconstruct the 2005 interview to the perfect of her recollection, not from any contemporaneous notes of their dialog.
Mr. Cosby didn’t testify on the trial, however in a video deposition performed for the jury, he denied having any sexual contact with Ms. Huth. He mentioned he didn’t know her, couldn’t recall taking her to the Playboy Mansion and wouldn’t be capable to acknowledge her.
Ms. Bonjean argued in court docket that Ms. Huth was motivated by cash, coordinated along with her buddy, Ms. Samuelson, and noticed a possibility in 2014 to affix different accusers who have been offering accounts of misconduct by Mr. Cosby at the moment.