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Hugh Hefner: Playboy Founder Faces Deposition In Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Lawsuit

By Leigh Egan
Published on: 23:26 PST, May 20, 2016

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner faced a deposition on Wednesday regarding a sexual battery civil lawsuit against actor and comedian Bill Cosby.

People reports that Hefner’s videotaped deposition took place at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles since the 90-year-old businessman is currently ill. According to Gloria Allred, an attorney representing alleged victim, Judy Huth, no one is allowed to speak about the details of the deposition due to a protective order.

“Because there is a protective order in place, we are not at liberty to discuss any part of Mr. Hefner’s testimony. We look forward to our day in court, after criminal proceedings against Mr. Cosby are concluded.”

Huth filed a legal complaint against Cosby in 2014, claiming that Cosby sexually assaulted her “by attempting to put his hand down her pants, and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent.” Huth alleges the incident happened when she was just 15-years-old, in 1974, while she was at Hefner’s Playboy mansion.

On Monday, another alleged victim filed a lawsuit against Cosby and Hefner at the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Chloe Goins claimed that Cosby sexually abused her in 2008, while she was at Hefner’s Playboy mansion. Goins’ attorney, Spencer Kuvin, stated that Hefner should also be named in the lawsuit because he was allegedly involved in violence against women and allowed Cosby’s reported sexual assault to happen in the mansion.

“We have alleged in our complaint and we believe we can prove at this time that not only is Mr. Cosby responsible for the heinous acts against our client and many other women, but that Mr. Hefner was complicit in not only our incident, but for a history of violence against women.”

In addition to suing Cosby and Hefner for sexually battery, Goins is also suing them for spiking her drinking while she attended a party at the Playboy mansion. Goins stated that Hefner told her she should go lie down in a bedroom after she began feeling woozy. She claimed that she woke up to Cosby licking her toes while pleasuring himself.

Goins’ dropped her previous lawsuit against Cosby for sexual assault in February without providing a reason why. Her filing allowed her to reopen the case at a later date, and on Monday, Kuvin indicated that the case had been dropped so that he could investigate the claims against Hefner.

“We didn’t go away. We just didn’t want to publicize what we were doing. As we continued to investigate, we found additional evidence that we felt pointed toward Mr. Hefner being complicit……It’s obviously kind of sad. Mr. Hefner is 90 years old now, and we’re suing him for what he’s done the 30-plus years he was friends with Mr. Cosby. It doesn’t make us happy, but I don’t think he should get away without being held accountable for being complicit.”

Meanwhile, a newly-revealed transcript shows that Cosby’s wife, Camille Cosby, refused to answer numerous questions during her own deposition in February. Camille, who fought endlessly against being deposed, testified that she never had any knowledge of her husband giving women alcohol or drugs. She also stated she had no knowledge of him having sex with other women.

The deposition stalled many times after Camille refused to answer. A judge was called each time to determine whether she was required to answer each particular question. She refused to answer details about her marriage, including whether her famous husband “acted with a lack of integrity.” Her attorney stated she didn’t have to answer based on the marital privilege law, which allows privacy between spouse communication.

Representatives for Hugh Hefner haven’t yet commented on the deposition.

[Photo by Ap/Reed Saxon]

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