On May 29, Los Angeles Judge Bradley S. Phillips denied Bill Cosby’s request for a new trial, leaving him liable for nearly $60 million in damages awarded in the sexual assault case brought by Donna Motsinger.
Here’s why Bill Cosby’s motion for a new trial was shut down.
According to court documents obtained by USA TODAY, Cosby filed the motion in April for a new trial after a jury ordered him to pay nearly $60 million in damages to Motsinger. The former The Bill Cosby Show star argued that the award was “excessive,” but Judge Phillips rejected the request on Monday, ruling that Cosby had not “shown that there was any irregularity in the proceedings or any order or abuse of discretion by the Court” that prevented him from having a fair trial. The judge also ruled that there was no evidence that the “compensatory or punitive damages were “excessive” and that “evidence was insufficient” to grant Cosby’s motion.
Bill Cosby argued that the verdict was “excessive” and that he could not afford to settle.
The ruling upholds a March verdict in which a Santa Monica jury found Cosby liable for drugging and sexually assaulting Motsinger in 1972 and was ultimately ordered to pay nearly $60 million in damages.
As previously reported, after a nearly two-week civil trial and two days of deliberations, jurors awarded Donna Motsinger $17.5 million in past damages and $1.75 million in future damages for “mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress.” During the second phase of the trial, Judge Phillips also awarded an additional $40 million in punitive damages, bringing the total judgment to $59.25 million.
Cosby has argued that he cannot afford to pay the award because of his diminished net worth. In his April petition, his attorneys contended that the $40 million punitive damages award alone represents roughly one-third of his wealth and that the “gigantic awards” are “presumptively excessive,” according to USA TODAY.
The New York Times reported that Cosby’s legal team also cited his financial struggles in recent years.
“Due to allegations, whether they be newspaper, radio, television, magazines or just plain internet, I have not worked in about 10 years, or more,” Cosby said in a deposition for the case in March. “That means I have not earned a cent through my being an entertainer, a writer, a television performer, except in reruns, and my net worth has gone down like a submarine with no motor.”
What’s Bill Cosby’s net worth? Can he afford to pay up?
Motsinger’s legal team has disputed those claims. An expert witness for the plaintiff estimated Cosby’s net worth at approximately $128 million. Sources familiar with his finances told the New York Post in late March that much of his wealth is tied to real estate holdings, an extensive art collection, and residual income from his decades-long entertainment career.
Cosby once ranked among the wealthiest Americans, appearing on the Forbes 400 list after his net worth climbed to an estimated $300 million in the early 1990s. In 1987 alone, he reportedly earned more than $100 million, nearly five times the compensation of the nation’s highest-paid executive at the time, Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, according to Forbes.
While the exact state of Cosby’s finances remains unclear, questions remain about whether he will need to liquidate assets or tap into his equity to satisfy the judgment. In 2025, he received a significant payout from the sale of his Manhattan townhouse. According to Realtor.com, Cosby sold the East 71st Street property for $28 million, with the transaction officially closing on Nov. 9, 2025.
Cosby also owns several other properties, including the family’s longtime primary residence in Cheltenham/Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Purchased in 1983 for $225,000, the historic 8,940-square-foot mansion sits on a gated three-acre estate outside Philadelphia and features seven bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms. The property is estimated to be worth $7.5 million, according to the New York Post.
In New York City, Cosby’s family also owns a 19th-century brownstone in the Lenox Hill neighborhood at 243 E. 61st Street. The six-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home is currently listed for sale at $5.99 million and has been in the family since 1980. It went into sale shortly after Cosby’s lender, CitiMortgage, filed a lawsuit in December 2025 with the Manhattan Supreme Court “alleging that Cosby had fallen behind on payments” for the loan he took out to purchase the property in 2010, Realtor.com noted in an April 2025 report.
With Judge Phillips denying the request for a new trial, one thing is clear: for now, Cosby remains on the hook for the $59.25 million judgment, marking yet another rocky chapter for the disgraced comedian.
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