If hard cases make bad law, celebrity cases make for even worse legal decisions. A tortuous trail of civil and criminal actions, dubious agreements, evasions and appeals involving disgraced entertainer Bill Cosby led this week to a Los Angeles jury’s decision to award $59.25 million in compensatory and punitive damages to Donna Motsinger, who claimed she was drugged and raped by Bill Cosby in 1972.

Motsinger is one of more than 60 women who have made similar claims. Some date back more than half a century. The jury reached its decision in the same Santa Monica courthouse where, 3½ years ago, another jury awarded $500,000 to Judy Huth, who claimed Cosby sexually assaulted her at a party at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion in 1975.

On Wednesday, the jury in Motsinger’s case upped the award against Cosby by a factor of 120. And this time, the $40 million in punitive damages made up the bulk of the award. Now 84, she was a 31-year-old waitress at a restaurant Cosby frequented in 1972 when he invited her to his comedy show. She testified he gave her pills that she believed were aspirin when she felt unwell after drinking a glass of wine he had offered her. She then lapsed into unconsciousness and later awoke realising she had been raped.

In some respects, Huth’s case was more egregious. She was just 15 in 1975 when Cosby, then aged 35, met her and her friend in a public park near their home in a Los Angeles suburb. Huth’s friend testified that he invited them both to the Playboy Mansion and told them to say they were 19 if anyone asked. Huth testified he took her into a bedroom and forced her to have sex with him. A photograph of Huth and Cosby, taken at the party, was entered into evidence. The jury’s verdict was hailed as a breakthrough for sex abuse victims, even though the damages awarded were relatively modest.

Traveller feuds: How family pride and social media are driving extreme violence

Russia-bound cargo ship seen dropping anchor near subsea cables off Irish coast

The Irish working for US firms: ‘Friday 4.30pm and somebody is trying to kick off a project’

Tipster is warned it is ‘bad idea’ to publish further criticisms of professional gambler

The frustration of repeated attempts by multiple victims to obtain justice is directly related to Cosby’s celebrity status as a beloved cultural icon for decades and the creator of the groundbreaking sitcom The Cosby Show. “America’s Dad” was listed as America’s top earning entertainer by Forbes in 1989, 1990 and 1992. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W Bush in 2002.

The legal saga started in 2005 when Andrea Constand, a former basketball player and sports administrator at Temple University, filed a police report claiming that a year earlier, Cosby had drugged and raped her. Bruce Castor, the Pennsylvania district attorney handling the case, decided not to bring a criminal prosecution on grounds that her delay in coming forward, lack of forensic evidence and Cosby’s denials would make it impossible to secure a guilty verdict. But he believed Constand and encouraged her to file a civil suit. To facilitate her case, he announced Cosby would not face criminal prosecution, thereby removing his reason to invoke the fifth amendment in a civil case. In the ensuing civil deposition Cosby admitted to drugging multiple women, but insisted sex had been consensual.

He and Constand reached an out-of-court settlement for $3.2 million but she faced a brutal public backlash. She and other women who subsequently came forward with allegations against Cosby were beaten back by waves of ridicule, suspicion and hostility. Media commentators demanded answers to why victims had waited so long before coming forward. “How big is his [Cosby’s] penis that it gives you amnesia for 40 years?” comedian Damon Wayans demanded.

Things started to change in 2015. Social media meant women who had been assaulted by Cosby learned about other women who had similar experiences. Cosby’s pattern as a predator was consistent.

Wednesday’s verdict indicates the misogyny of the 2016 comedy circuit, which came before the #MeToo era, hasn’t resurfaced in jury pools of 2026, even if the #MeToo backlash has led to a tsunami of resurgent toxic masculinity in US politics and entertainment.

But there may be other factors at play. Throughout the trial, Cosby claimed he was facing financial ruin. But financial records requested by the court revealed he was merely down to his last $128 million and still owned estates in Pennsylvania and Connecticut and an apartment in Manhattan. A jury culled from a pool of ordinary Americans was unlikely to have been impressed by his pleas of relative poverty.

Public outrage over the Epstein files may also have played a role. According to Andrew V Wyatt, his former publicist, Cosby “inherited” the public furore over the Epstein files. While this glosses over the extent of Cosby’s crimes and decades of predation, there is no doubt America has been appalled and outraged by the files.

Shortly after the Huth case, Wyatt indicated to this reporter that he had recommended to Cosby that he enter into an agreement to settle all claims against him for $20 million with no admission of liability. Otherwise, he advised, he would spend the rest of his life in litigation. With another dozen cases in the pipeline, he has been proven correct.

But delay is the wealthy defendant’s friend. Cosby can litter legal proceedings with motions that are calculated to drag out a case for years and drain the plaintiff’s resources.

Cosby has already signalled his intention to appeal. He is approaching his 89th birthday. Motsinger is 84. A lengthy appeals process could outlast them both.

© The Irish Times