Bill Cosby, NBCUniversal Sued by Five Women

Bill Cosby was sued by five women for sexual offenses under a New York law that lifted the statute of limitations on such claims for the next year, creating fresh legal troubles for the embattled American actor.

Bloomberg reports the suit, filed Monday under the Adult Survivors Act, which took effect last month, also names NBCUniversal Media, which aired The Cosby Show and A Different World. The company is accused of negligence for allegedly turning a blind eye to Cosby’s conduct in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The plaintiffs include two women who had roles in the popular TV shows. Lili Bernard alleges Cosby drugged and raped her before threatening to blacklist her from the industry if she resisted; Eden Tirl alleges she was regularly forced to eat lunch with Cosby alone in his dressing room on production days, and that he sexually assaulted her on one such occasion. Most of the incidents in the complaint involve Cosby allegedly using his popular TV shows to lure young aspiring actors into his circle before getting them alone.

Cosby regularly engaged in “drugging women so that he could engage in sexual acts with said women without their consent, raping women, forcibly touching women, and/or forcing women to engage in sexual acts with him without their consent,” according to the complaint.

Cosby, 85, has consistently denied the allegations.