Bill Cosby 6 - H 2014
AP Images/InvisionFamed feminist attorney Gloria Allred hosted three women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct at an overcrowded office in Los Angeles on Wednesday, including one who was a Jane Doe in a 2005 lawsuit against the comedian and two who have never publicly revealed their accusations before.
The women were Helen Hayes, Beth Ferrier and “Chelan.”
Surrounded by dozens of TV cameras and radio microphones — and an unusual amount of security for such an event — Allred proposed a settlement that amounted to a similar method used by the Catholic church when settling accusations of priest molestations even though the statute of limitations had expired.
Chelan said she was 17 years old and an aspiring model working at the Las Vegas Hilton when she met with Cosby and he gave her a blue pill. “I laid down. He laid down next to me on the bed and began pinching my left nipple and humping my leg while he was grunting,” she said.
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Chelan said she blacked out, then “13 to 16 hours later I woke up by hearing Mr. Cosby clapping his hands and saying, ‘Daddy says wake up.’ He gave me $1,500.”
Ferrier broke down many times while telling her story. She said that in the 1980s she also was an aspiring model and actress who met Cosby through her then agent, and she and Cosby had an extramarital affair for several months.
One night backstage at one of his performances in Denver, Ferrier said Cosby gave her coffee and she lost consciousness.
“The next thing I knew, hours passed and I woke up in the back of my car alone. My clothes were a mess; my bra was undone. My car was in the alleyway behind the venue. I felt disoriented. I had no idea what happened to me.”
Ferrier said she told her story to the National Enquirer, which asked that she take a lie detector test, which she passed. Instead of reporting her story, the Enquirer was given access to Cosby and it printed his interview, including denials of claims that he had molested women.
Hayes said that she met Cosby in 1973 at Clint Eastwood‘s Celebrity Tennis Tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. Cosby followed her and two friends “all day,” Hayes said. “We felt we were safe,” she said. “But then when he found us in the last restaurant, he approached me from behind and reached over my shoulder and grabbed my right breast. … His behavior was like that of a predator.”
Ferrier was a Jane Doe set to testify in Andrea Constand‘s 2005 lawsuit against Cosby for allegedly drugging and raping her. Constand’s suit was settled out of court in 2006 for an undisclosed amount, but it helped set into motion a recent series of similar claims from the 13 women lined up to testify on her behalf, plus several others who claim Cosby assaulted them at various times since 1965.
At her press conference on Wednesday, Allred proposed that Cosby waive the statutes of limitation on all claims of sexual abuse for a period of time, then deal with them en masse, so that the women could present their evidence and he could present his defense.
“If Mr. Cosby believes all the women are being untruthful, then this is his opportunity to prove it,” she said.
Alternatively, she asked that he place $100 million into a fund and anyone who claims she was a victim could appear before a panel of retired judges who would serve as arbitrators to determine the merits of each claim and, if need be, amount of compensation.
Cosby has not publicly addressed any of the allegations, though he has canceled several tour dates in the face of mounting public criticism. His representatives and attorneys have denied previous allegations against him. Cosby resigned from Temple University’s board of directors on Monday. On Tuesday, a Riverside, Calif., woman filed a lawsuit against Cosby claiming he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974, when she was 15 years old.
Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com
Diana Swartz contributed to this report.
