Bill Cosby civil case over alleged sexual assault is headed to trial

Almost a year after Bill Cosby was released from prison, a civil assault case against the disgraced comedian is headed to trial.

Judy Huth is suing Cosby for allegedly assaulting her at the Playboy mansion when she was a teenager, and on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan declined to dismiss the case, as his lawyers had pushed for, The Associated Press reports.

Cosby's attorneys objected after Huth changed the details of her story to allege the assault took place in 1975, not in 1974 as she previously said. The comedian's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, claimed this amounted to a "trial by ambush." While the judge decided not to dismiss the case, he ordered the accuser to provide additional deposition. Huth's lawyer, John West, said her timeline was adjusted based on new evidence, Rolling Stone reports.

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"What Ms. Bonjean is upset about is that she can't spring some devastating cross-examination on [Huth] because she realized she was wrong and corrected herself," West said.

The case comes after Cosby was freed from prison in June 2021 after being convicted on charges of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction, finding that he had an agreement with a previous prosecutor that should have prevented him from being charged. Prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, but the court declined to do so in March 2021.

Jury selection in the civil case is set to start on May 23.