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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Bill Cosby is facing new allegations of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed by a former actress who says the Hollywood talent agency that represented the comedian at the time knew or should have known of his history of assaulting women, according to court papers obtained Wednesday.
According to the lawsuit, while Cosby was preparing for his film "Hickey & Boggs" in 1971, he reached out to his representatives, the William Morris Agency -- now known as William Morris Endeavor -- and requested that another agency client, actress Linda Ridgway-Whitedeer, come to the filming location and audition for a role in the film.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Ridgway-Whitedeer, alleges that when she arrived at the audition, she expected to see others involved in the casting process. Instead, she says, Cosby ushered her into an office. From there, he allegedly ordered her to sit in a chair abutting the door, ensuring that no one could enter the room. The suit alleges that he grabbed her hair and forced his penis into her mouth.
A message left with Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's public relations and crisis manager, was not immediately returned. A WME representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ridgway-Whitedeer, 77, of Los Angeles, filed the lawsuit under a California law passed last year that eliminates the statute of limitations for most sexual assault cases.
"There are two levels of betrayal at play here that put Linda in Cosby's clutches," Jeff Anderson, Ridgway-Whitedeer's attorney, said in a statement.
"The first is Cosby's power to summon any young, vulnerable actress with promises of a career and opportunities. But he didn't give these women jobs or opportunities in the entertainment industry. He sexually assaulted them. The second layer of betrayal is the William Morris Agency. They knew or should have known that actresses were going to auditions with Cosby and coming back traumatized, assaulted, and raped. And what did William Morris do? Nothing."
In 2016, Ridgway-Whitedeer was invited to testify at a press conference at the California State Capitol, urging then-Gov. Jerry Brown to support SB 813, the bill that eliminated the statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault in the state.
While the law passed, it was not retroactive, meaning it was not applicable to previous cases of sexual assault. In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2777 -- the Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act -- which closed that loophole.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of drugging and raping them over the years, and Cosby has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Cosby, 86, was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 in Pennsylvania, and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. His conviction was overturned in 2021 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court based on a prior prosecution agreement not to charge the defendant.
In June 2022, Cosby was found civilly liable in Santa Monica for the sexual assault of a Riverside County woman who said the comedian sexually abused her when she was a teenager at the Playboy Mansion in the 1970s.