Cosby To Testify On Sexual Abuse Allegations

It's time for Bill Cosby to talk at long last. For several months, the comedian has remained mum after being accused by more than two dozen women of sexual assault. In the midst of continuing to perform his stand up routines on tour, he has made comments about the accusations only through his legal team, saying that he would not "dignify" the claims with a comment. No longer. Bill Cosby is being forced to testify in a sexual assault case.

Though many women have come forward publicly with claims against the comedian, the case in question focuses on Judith Huth's accusations. Huth claims that Cosby sexually assaulted her in the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15 years old, and filed a lawsuit against Cosby in December 2014 with complaints of "sexual battery," "intentional infliction of emotional distress," and "negligent infliction of emotional distress," according to her court documents.

Cosby's team petitioned the California Supreme Court to review Huth's case, but the court denied the petition on July 22. Shortly after, the court cleared the way for the sexual assault case to head to litigation. Huth's attorney, Gloria Allred, who is also representing three Cosby accusers, Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, and Linda Traitz in their defamation suits, said that she plans to take Cosby's deposition under oath within the next 30 days.

This is a huge deal. After all, Cosby has never been charged in any of the accusations brought against him, partially because many of the women's claims against him have already passed the statute of limitations. Though he was taken to court in 2005 by alleged victim Andrea Constand, that case was settled. (The recently released deposition in which Cosby admitted to obtaining Quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex came from this lawsuit.)

Though the Huth case wasn't able to go to court last year because of the statute of limitations, according to Business Insider, Huth's attorney said the statute is more forgiving of civil complaints of childhood sexual abuse, allowing for a claim of repressed psychological injury. Up to this point, Cosby has been able to pick and choose what he has said about the cases and, so far, what he has said has been essentially nothing. In other words, Cosby no longer has the luxury of silence.

The latest Cosby update before this news came from his legal team only a day earlier. The comedian's lawyers asked the Philadelphia court that oversees the Constand case to keep the remainder of the 2006 settlement with the alleged victim sealed.

The Cosby's lawyer's response to the accusations, made in November 2014, reads as follows:

Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives.

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