Bill Cosby is heading back to court after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan set a July 2018 trial date for accuser Judy Huth’s child sex assault lawsuit against the embattled comedian.
In December 2014, Huth accused Cosby of allegedly forcing her to perform a sex act with him at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974. Huth, who is being represented by attorney Gloria Allred, was just 15 years old at the time.
Judge Karlan set a tentative date of July 30, 2018 for the beginning of the civil case trial, according to the Associated Press.
Gloria Allred, left, attorney for Judy Huth, who alleges entertainer Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion more than 40 years ago, speaks with Cosby’s attorney Angela Agrusa, outside Los Angeles Superior Court after a hearing, Tuesday, June 27, 2017, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
In this Dec. 5, 2014 file photo, Judy Huth, left, appears at a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred outside the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division station. (AP Photo/Anthony McCartney, File)
The new trial date comes less than two weeks after a Pennsylvania jury deliberated 52 hours and failed to reach a verdict in another case in which Cosby was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
Constand’s is the sole criminal case against the comedian, after more than fifty women have accused him of sexual assault or harassment; many of the alleged assaults have exceeded the statute of limitations.
Cosby has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, pleaded not guilty, and insisted that his encounter with Constand was consensual.
Bill Cosby, center, gestures while exiting the Montgomery County Courthouse with his publicist Andrew Wyatt, second from left, after a mistrial was declared in his sexual assault trial in Norristown, Pa., Saturday, June 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
District Attorney Kevin Steele holds a news conference after a mistrial in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case in Norristown, Pa., Saturday, June 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A woman demonstrates outside the Montgomery County Courthouse after Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial, Saturday, June 17, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Bill Cosby exits the Montgomery County Courthouse after a mistrial in his sexual assault case in Norristown, Pa., Saturday, June 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Pennsylvania prosecutors announced plans to retry Cosby with the same charges before the end of the year.
Judge Karlan reportedly scheduled the upcoming trial for July of next year on the assumption that the former television star would be retried this fall in Pennsylvania.
“Ms. Huth is committed to this civil case, no matter the result of the criminal case against Mr. Cosby,” Allred told reporters Tuesday outside a Santa Monica, California courthouse. “It is not dependent on the outcome of the criminal case. She’s proceeding.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson
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