Bill Cosby has been ordered to give a sworn deposition in a lawsuit alleging he sexually abused a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974.

The order, entered by a Los Angeles superior court judge on Tuesday and made public on Wednesday, states that the comedian will submit to questions under oath from the lawyer of his accuser, Judy Huth, on 9 October and that she will answer questions from his attorneys on 15 October.

Cosby’s lawyers had sought to compel Huth to give her deposition before the comedian but the judge sided with Huth in requiring Cosby to go first.

Huth is among dozens of women who have come forward in the past year to say that they were raped or molested by Cosby after he gave them drugs or alcohol in incidents dating back decades. The complaint filed by Huth against Cosby is one of several pending civil lawsuits stemming from such accusations.

Cosby, in a previous court deposition related to a separate claim against him, said he was simply one of many people who used sedative drugs as part of consensual sex in the 1970s.

The way for the depositions in the Huth case, a key part of the discovery process in civil litigation, was cleared when the California supreme court in July denied Cosby’s petition to review the case, dealing a final blow to his efforts to fend off Huth’s lawsuit.

“We are pleased that we will now be able to move ahead without further delay on Ms Huth’s case,” Allred said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from Cosby’s legal team.

In 2006 Cosby reached a confidential settlement for an undisclosed sum with a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, who accused him of sexual assault. Parts of the deposition he gave in that case were made public in July.



The complaint filed by Huth against Cosby is one of at least four pending civil lawsuits stemming from such accusations, though Allred has said hers is the only one seeking damages for the alleged misconduct itself.

The others are defamation suits whose principal causes of action allege the entertainer falsely branded his accusers as liars by denying that he sexually assaulted them.

Cosby, who also faces a criminal investigation by Los Angeles police, has never been charged. He and his lawyers acknowledge marital infidelity on his part but have consistently denied allegations of criminal wrongdoing.