Cosby won’t be charged with child sex abuse

Los Angeles • Los Angeles prosecutors on Tuesday declined to file any charges against Bill Cosby after a woman recently claimed the comedian molested her around 1974.

The rejection of a child sexual-abuse charge by prosecutors came roughly 10 days after the woman, Judy Huth, met with Los Angeles police detectives for 90 minutes.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office rejected filing a misdemeanor charge of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18 because the statute of limitations had passed.

Days before Huth spoke to police, she accused Cosby in a civil lawsuit of forcing her to perform a sex act on him in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion when she was 15 years old. Cosby's attorney said that Huth attempted to extort $250,000 from the comedian before she sued and that she had attempted to sell her story to a tabloid a decade ago.

Cosby is seeking a dismissal of Huth's lawsuit, arguing it is blocked by the statute of limitations.

Prosecutors took into account legislative changes that extend the statute of limitations for certain crimes, but found no way that Cosby could be legally prosecuted.

The statute of limitations for filing a misdemeanor case is one year; and for a felony sex crime committed in 1974, it's three years, according to prosecutors.

An email message sent to Huth's attorney, Gloria Allred, was not returned. Cosby's attorney, Marty Singer, did not return a message.

Huth is one of at least 15 women who have come forward since early November with claims that Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Most of the women say the comedian drugged them before he assaulted them.

Cosby has never been charged in connection with any of the allegations. A 2005 lawsuit by a Pennsylvania woman was settled before it went to trial.

Since the allegations emerged, Cosby's career has unraveled, with nearly a dozen performances canceled in his comedy tour.

NBC has said it will not move forward with a Cosby sitcom that was under development, and Netflix indefinitely postponed a special that was set to premiere last month.