LAPD to investigate Bill Cosby underage sex claim

JUDY Huth claims she was just 15 years old when Bill Cosby molested her - and now the LAPD is investigating. Will her story finally bring him down?

Los Angeles police opened an investigation into a woman’s claims that Bill Cosby molested her when she was 15 years old, a department spokeswoman said.

The investigation was opened on Friday after Judy Huth, who is suing Cosby for sexual battery, met with detectives for 90 minutes, Officer Jane Kim said.

Huth’s civil suit claims Cosby forced her to perform a sex act on him in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974 when she was underage.

EARLIER: How Judy Huth’s story broke

ULTIMATUM: ‘Pay up or go to court’, Cosby told

Attorney Gloria Allred said Huth met with two special victims unit detectives on Friday, three days after her lawsuit was filed.

“We are going to provide any and all evidence that she has,” Allred said.

Huth did not take questions during a news conference.

Judy Huth, left, appears at a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred. Picture: AP Photo/Anthony McCartney

Police did not give any additional details about the investigation. Police Chief Charlie Beck on Thursday urged potential victims of sex abuse by Cosby to speak with detectives, regardless of whether their claims were outside the statute of limitations.

Allred refused to comment on Huth’s lawsuit, which was filed by a different law firm. Cosby’s attorney, Martin Singer, accused Huth and another lawyer of extortion and said she attempted to sell her story to a tabloid a decade earlier.

Singer’s filing states the other attorney, Marc Strecker, first demanded $100,000 for Huth to remain silent, then raised the demand to $250,000 as more women came forward accusing Cosby of sexual misconduct.

Cosby has been accused by more than 15 women in recent weeks of sexual misconduct, ranging from groping to drugging and raping. He has never been charged with a crime, and his attorneys have denied many of the allegations.

Crews on Friday were forced to clean up Cosby’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after someone wrote “Rapist” on it three times.

Reputation tarnished ... a worker cleans Bill Cosby's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 5. Picture: AFP Photo / Frederic J. Brown

“When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways then to vandalise a California state landmark,” the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which manages the stars embedded in several sidewalks, said in a statement.

Cosby received his star in 1977. It’s placed near the busy intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue.

Judy Huth ... is she the woman who will bring Bill Cosby down? Picture: AP Photo/Anthony McCartney

Cosby and the Playboy connection

Also on Friday, a woman who said Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1979 told her story in interviews with CNN and The Associated Press and said she wanted to help stop the comedian from abusing others.

P.J. Masten said in an interview with CNN that she woke up naked and bruised in a bed with Cosby in Chicago after he gave her an alcoholic drink and that she believes she was raped.

She said she knew Cosby from working at Playboy clubs in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Chicago.

She said she was instructed at the time not to report the assault because Cosby was Hugh Hefner’s “best friend,” but she decided this week to come forward with her allegations after Huth filed her lawsuit.

Spreading scandal ... Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner, pictured in 2010. Picture: AFP PHOTO/ROBYN BECK

“I just want him exposed for the serial druggie rapist that he is. He’s got to be stopped,” Masten said. “I don’t care if he’s 77 years old. He’s got to be stopped.”

CNN quoted Masten as saying there were many other former Playboy bunnies who had been assualted by Cosby but were afraid to come ofrward.

“(There are) 12 former bunnies that I know of that are ashamed to come forward, frightened to come forward, married with families (and) don’t want to come forward.” she said. “But they were also drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”

The scandal has also prompted Playbody founder Hugh Hefner to issue a guarded statement.

“Bill Cosby has been a good friend for many years and the mere thought of these allegations is truly saddening,” he said. “I would never tolerate this kind of behavior, regardless of who was involved.”

Originally published as LAPD to investigate Bill Cosby underage sex claim