For years, Bill Cosby’s legal team has battled his accusers in courtrooms from California to Nevada. Now that same team is telling a federal judge the 89-year-old is in such poor shape he can barely leave the house.
His attorney says Cosby is legally blind, struggles with mobility and needs help with basic daily tasks.
It’s a far cry from the defiant figure who walked out of prison in 2021 still insisting he did nothing wrong.
The women suing him aren’t buying it. And while his lawyer pleads frailty, Cosby is also facing claims that millions of dollars have been moved out of reach of a woman a jury says he drugged and sexually assaulted more than 50 years ago.
The latest fight is playing out in a federal lawsuit first filed in Nevada in 2023 by nine women, including Lise-Lotte Lublin and Lili Bernard, who accuse the disgraced “Cosby Show” star of drugging and assaulting them between 1979 and 1992.
Bill Cosby Says in Rare Phone Interview He Refuses to Show Remorse About Sexual Assault Conviction
Their attorney, Jordan Rutsky, has asked the judge to force Cosby to sit for a deposition. He also wants a default judgment over Cosby’s “repeated and willful discovery misconduct, according to Radar Online.
Cosby’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, fired back that her client is “homebound.” She said questioning him at this state would jeopardize “his safety and health.”
“There is nothing nefarious going on behind the scenes,” Bonjean insisted.
Then she spelled out exactly what his days look like now.
According to a filing first obtained by TMZ in July, Cosby is “legally blind and suffers from a variety of health issues, including significant mobility limitations.”
The entertainer “must be accompanied by a male assistant at all times to ensure his safety and to help with basic needs like using the restroom.”
Depositions set for June 23 and 24 were scrapped because that aide was “not available on the scheduled days,” Bonjean explained. She cited his “disabilities, age-related health issues, and related logistical challenges that could not be avoided.”
The plaintiffs say it’s a pattern.
The celebrity news outlet later reported that Cosby’s team called off a third deposition, set for Sept. 22 through 24, a day before it was set to start, following earlier cancellations in April and June.
The women’s lawyers want sanctions or an order barring him from testifying so he “cannot benefit from his delay tactics.”
His health troubles didn’t start this year. While Cosby was incarcerated at SCI-Phoenix, his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, revealed in a 2020 statement that doctors found 90 percent blockages in both carotid arteries. The blockages led to two “life-sustaining” surgeries in fall 2019. Wyatt said Cosby was also completely blind from glaucoma.
When news of his condition surfaced over the summer, plenty of social media users weren’t moved. “A tale as old as time. Step 1: Face legal consequences. Step 2: Suddenly become too ill to participate,” one person wrote on X.
Another recalled, “He seemed in pretty bad health even going back to his trial.”
“Hasn’t he been off the radar screen for yrs? Why now?” someone else asked. One user reflected, “Before there was Harvey Weinstein, there was Bill Cosby,” while another kept it simple: “Praying for him.”
The health battle is unfolding alongside a separate war over money. In March, a Santa Monica jury found Cosby liable for drugging and sexually assaulting former waitress Donna Motsinger in 1972, awarding her $19.25 million in compensatory damages and another $40 million in punitive damages. A judge denied his bid for a new trial in May.
Motsinger’s lawyers say he hasn’t paid a dime. Radar Online also reported that he allegedly sold art and moved money into his daughter’s trust fund.
“Rather than accepting the consequences of his decision to go to trial, Mr. Cosby is fighting yet again to avoid accountability for his own actions,” Motsinger said.
The cash crunch isn’t new, either. In December 2024, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Cosby and his wife, Camille, had defaulted on a $4.2 million mortgage for a Manhattan townhouse.
A second foreclosure suit over their larger Upper East Side home followed weeks later.
Cosby has denied every allegation against him, and contrition has never been his style.
In 2019, she showed no remorse over his conviction during a prison phone interview, calling jurors “imposters.” That same year, a judge stuck him with a $2.75 million legal bill owed to a Los Angeles law firm.
For now, it’s up to the Nevada judge who will decide whether Cosby’s health excuses him from the deposition.
