The woman identified in a court document as Renita Hill alleged Cosby abused her from 1983 through 1987. The first alleged abuse occurred when she was in high school during a trip to Atlantic City.
Hill also claimed in the 17-page document that on numerous occasions Cosby served her an alcoholic drink she alleges was laced with some type of knock-out drug shortly before some of the alleged abuse occurred.
Hill alleges she first met Cosby when he was searching for a “co-host for an episode of the television show Picture Pages, an educational children’s television show hosted by Cosby and produced by Walt Disney.”
Cosby invited Hill and an undisclosed number of other women to “Froggy’s Tavern” in Pittsburgh and eventually selected Hill for the position, she said.
Soon thereafter he offered to mentor Hill and communicated to her parents assuring “them that he had her bests interests at heart,” and also told them he was assisting her with both her education and career pursuits. At the time Hill was attending Vincentian Academy, a private Catholic high school in McCandless Township, just north of Pittsburgh.
After a period of time, Cosby requested Hill meet him at various locations where he would be performing, and further, that Cosby would handle all of Hill’s travel arrangements, the lawsuit alleges. Most of these trips were to Atlantic City and New York City.
Cosby first sexually abused Hill during a trip to Atlantic City, when she was just 16, the document said.
After drinking an unknown substance Cosby gave her, Hill alleges, “she would loose consciousness and wake up in her room the next day, oftentime nude, disheveled, confused and disoriented.”
Over a period of time, the document alleges, Hill began to realize that she was just not “‘blacking-out’ from alcohol,” but that “she was being assaulted and taken advantage of.”
“While she was in this semi-conscious or unconscious state, Renita was sexually assaulted by [Bill] Cosby,” she alleges.
During the time she was meeting Cosby at different locations and he was allegedly sexually abusing her, Cosby was paying Hill’s high school and college expenses. It was only after Hill cut ties with Cosby and refused to see him again, did he stop making payments, Hill said.
in 2014 after learning that numerous other women have come forward and made similar allegations against Cosby, Hill shared her story and accusations against Cosby with a Pittsburgh television station.
Cosby denied the accusations and claimed Hill and the other women are merely trying to obtain money from him.
Hill is alleging in the court document that statements made by Cosby, his attorney Martin Singer and Cosby’s wife Camille Cosby in labeling the sexual abuse allegations as “ridiculous,” “unsubstantiated fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40 or even 50 years ago have escalated far past the point of absurdity,” amount to defamation.
Because the alleged acts of abuse occurred over 27 years ago, the statute of limitations for both a criminal prosecution and civil lawsuit have long expired, Hill is suing Cosby for defamation for claiming his denials of the alleged abuse are false.
Allegations over Cosby’s alleged abuse of multiple women surfaced in 2005 when Andrea Constand filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia alleging Cosby “had given her pills that reduced her consciousness and then he sexually assaulted her.”
In court documents Constand alleged that 13 other women identified as “Jane Doe witnesses” suffered similar abuse. Cosby settled the lawsuit in November, 2006.
Neither Cosby or his lawyers have commented about the lawsuit and under Pennsylvania law, Cosby must file an answer admitting or denying the allegation or ask that the lawsuit be dismissed within 20 days.
