By ANDREW DALTON
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — The “Donkey Kong defense” got here into play Monday at a civil trial over sexual assault allegations towards Bill Cosby, as his lawyer pressed a key witness over earlier statements that she had performed the arcade sport throughout a go to with Cosby to the Playboy Mansion in 1975, six years earlier than its launch.
The testimony got here within the Los Angeles County trial over the lawsuit of Judy Huth, who additionally started testifying Monday, however didn’t but describe her allegation that Cosby sexually assaulted her on the Playboy Mansion when she was 16. Cosby denies her allegations.
Donna Samuelson, a highschool pal of Huth’s who accompanied her and Cosby on a go to to the mansion, returned to the stand Monday, testifying in regards to the sport room with an adjoining bed room the place Huth says Cosby compelled her to carry out a intercourse act.
“You testified multiple times that you were playing Donkey Kong,” Cosby lawyer Jennifer Bonjean informed Samuelson, referring to a 2014 police interview and a 2016 deposition in Huth’s case.
“If I did I did,” Samuelson mentioned. “I understand it wasn’t around yet.”
Bonjean performed a clip from the deposition, by which Samuelson referred to the sport a number of instances.
Asked Monday to clarify the discrepancy, Samuelson answered, “I got the name wrong. I just kept saying that because it was a game. It could have been Atari.”
She additionally mentioned she was taking part in the sport when Cosby got here up behind her and put his fingers on her shoulders earlier than she shook them off.
Bonjean confirmed Samuelson and the jury a photograph of the sport room taken in 2016, the place a Donkey Kong sport may very well be seen, and requested whether or not related images taken years after 1975 might have affected her reminiscence and testimony.
Samuelson replied that she hadn’t seen such a picture till the 2016 photograph was proven to her in courtroom throughout her testimony final week.
During his opening assertion on Wednesday, Huth’s lawyer Nathan Goldberg sought to go off the difficulty, telling jurors they had been going to be listening to “the Donkey Kong defense” from Cosby’s legal professionals.
“So she got the name wrong,” Goldberg mentioned, “so what?”
Bonjean embraced the time period in her opening, saying Huth’s related prior statements about Samuelson taking part in the sport, and images displaying it within the room later, had been proof that the 2 girls had been coordinating a false story.
The trial represents one of many final remaining authorized claims towards Cosby after his Pennsylvania prison conviction was thrown out and different lawsuits had been settled by his insurer towards his will.
Huth, 64, briefly took the stand late Monday, recalling the spring day in 1975 when she and Samuelson took her brother’s canine to play frisbee at Lacy Park in San Marino, California, a spot they frequented.
She mentioned they seen a manufacturing was taking place there that may change into a shoot for the movie “Let’s Do It Again.” They noticed stars Sidney Poitier, Jimmie Walker and Cosby, Huth mentioned.
She remembered whispering, “That’s Bill Cosby” to Samuelson, and Cosby playfully mimicking her whisper and pretending to be holding a leash of his personal canine.
She testified that after chatting for some time, Cosby invited them to a watch him play tennis at a Los Angeles membership the next Saturday.
Huth mentioned they had been “excited, because we were kids, and he was a celebrity. It was out of the norm, that was for sure.”
The ladies met Cosby on the membership, the place they briefly watched him play tennis then went to the native home the place he was staying.
There, Cosby recommended they play a sport a sport of pool, and recommended the stakes.
“He said for every game I lose I have to drink a beer, and for every game he loses he has to drink a beer,” Huth testified.
Huth mentioned she had between one and three beers.
“I’m sure I felt the effects of the alcohol,” she mentioned.
After about an hour, Cosby mentioned he had a shock for them, they usually adopted him in Samuelson’s Mustang to a gate, the place the 2 vehicles had been let in, Huth mentioned.
They parked and walked right into a sport room, the place Buck Owens, nation star and host of the TV present “Hee Haw,” was taking pictures pool, however left after a couple of minutes, Huth mentioned.
She mentioned she realized she was on the Playboy Mansion when she noticed a drawing on the wall that was signed, “To Hugh,” slowly realizing that it referred to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Asked by her lawyer what her response to being there was, she responded solely with, “Wow.”
She was proven a photograph taken by Samuelson inside the sport room.
“That’s me and Bill Cosby, she said.”
The image, important to Huth’s case, has already been proven to jurors a number of instances. It reveals Cosby carrying a crimson beanie and smiling subsequent to the teenage Huth.
Cosby’s attorneys acknowledge that he took the ladies to the mansion, however deny any intercourse assault occurred. They have described Huth’s lawsuit as a scheme to money in on the images that had been taken that day.
The Associated Press doesn’t usually identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused, except they arrive ahead publicly, as Huth has.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
Source: www.bostonherald.com”