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Jurors shown video of Cosby denying Playboy Mansion assault claim -Breaking

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO – Bill Cosby is seen with Jennifer Bonjean, a lawyer, outside of his Elkins Park home, Pennsylvania. He was released immediately by the highest court in Pennsylvania.

By Lisa Richwine

SANTA MONICA (Reuters) – A recorded deposition was shown to a jury Wednesday that heard Bill Cosby deny a woman in California claiming that he sexually assaulted him at Playboy Mansion during the mid-1970s.

Judy Huth has filed a civil suit in 2014 seeking unspecified damages. She claims that Cosby forced Judy to have sex at the mansion while she was still a teenager.

Jurors saw a video of Cosby responding to questions by one of Huth’s lawyers during a 2015 deposition. It lasted approximately 10 minutes.

Cosby said “no” when asked whether he had tried to pull Huth’s pants down. He then grabbed Huth’s hand, and used it for masturbating as she claims.

Although he acknowledged that he was going to bring people to the mansion, he said that he doesn’t remember Huth nor the friend who claimed that she went with him that evening.

He said, “I don’t know Ms. Huth.”

When asked if Huth’s story could be accurate, Cosby replied that he had lost the incident. “This young lady says that she said she was 15, but she didn’t tell me that.”

Cosby (now 84) said that he has never had sexual contact with any person he knows who is under 18 years old. Cosby is unlikely to be present at the trial.

Jennifer Bonjean, a Cosby lawyer, challenged Huth’s account and her timeline revisions during cross-examination.

Huth stated that the incident took place in 1974. She was 15, when the lawsuit was filed. This week, she testified that she has recently realized that her date of the incident was wrong and believes that it occurred in 1975.

Bonjean asked Huth Wednesday questions about her past traumas and her antidepressant use. This suggested that any emotional distress she experienced was not related to her time spent with Cosby.

Huth (now 64) testified that her ex-partner had abused her and that she was a victim in an accident in which five others were killed in another car.

She said that her interactions with Cosby were the most important. Huth stated that “nothing is as terrible as that,” Huth added.

California will hold the civil trial 11 months following Cosby’s release from prison after Pennsylvania’s highest Court tossed his previous sexual assault conviction.

Cosby is well-known as his 1980s role in “The Cosby Show,” where he played the role of the charming husband and father. This earned him the nickname, “America’s Father.”

However, his familial-friendly reputation was shaken after more 50 women accused him over the course of nearly fifty years of sexual assaults.

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