Three more women have come forward alleging that funnyman Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them. The three women, which include an actress who appeared on “The Cosby Show,” and the former wife of a vice president at the William Morris Agency, now join more than 40 women who allege they were drugged, sexually assaulted or sexually harassed by the comedian in the 1970s and ’80s.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Aug. 12, discrimination attorney Gloria Allred revealed that the women decided to come forward after Cosby’s attorneys criticized previous accusers. Allred is now representing more than 21 accusers.
“There is no statute of limitations on free speech,” says Allred. “A person who alleges that she or he is a victim can speak out at any time.”
Cosby has consistently denied the allegations of sexual assault. Cosby’s attorney, Marty Singer, said that the claims “about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous.” However, Singer did not immediately comment on the new allegations.
At the press conference, Colleen Hughes, a former stewardess, said she first met Cosby when she was employed by American Airlines in the early ’70s, on a flight to Los Angeles. Hughes alleges that Cosby flirted with her the entire flight before inviting her to lunch in Beverly Hills. She agreed but with the condition that another stewardess join them. Cosby allegedly had a car and driver waiting for them at the airport, however, the other stewardess did not show up. Hughes says that she drove with Cosby to the Fairmont Hotel where the comedian joined her in her room and watched TV as she got ready for lunch.
When she came out of the bathroom fully dressed, she said Cosby had allegedly ordered a bottle of champagne and was drinking it out of her Gucci pump. She claimed he raised the shoe toward her, and said, “A princess should always drink champagne out of a glass slipper.”
Hughes said they started watching TV and he allegedly tried to hold her hand. But that is the last thing she remembered. According to Hughes’ statement, she woke up around 5:15 p.m. with her clothes all over the room and says she “felt semen on the small of my back and all over me.”
“It was disgusting,” she added. “Bill obviously did not use a condom and there was no lunch and Bill was nowhere to be seen. I was confused and ashamed and never told anyone about what happened to me.”
A second accuser, Linda Ridgeway Whitedeer said that at the time of her alleged assault she was the recently divorced from Fred Apollo, a vice president and department head of live TV for the William Morris Agency. In fact, she worked closely with Cosby. Whitedeer, a former actress, claimed she met Cosby on a movie set in 1971. She claimed Cosby told her she was there to be interviewed, and then he allegedly lured her into the director’s office.
Once inside, Cosby exposed himself, grabbed her head and shoved his penis into her mouth, Whitedeer alleged. “His attack was fast with surgical precision and surprise on his side,” she said. “When Cosby was done there was a horrible mess of semen all over my face, my clothes and in my hair.”
As for why she didn’t go straight to the William Morris Agency, Whitedeer claimed she didn’t want to embarrass her ex-husband. “An actress is like a tennis player,” she said at the press conference. “Her integrity and confidence are everything. For me, Bill Cosby was a career-killer.”
The third victim, Eden Tiri, alleges she was a 22-year-old actress when she was given a part playing a cop on “The Cosby Show” in 1989. While on set, along with hundreds of people, Tiri claimed she was led off set to Cosby’s dressing room twice but he wasn’t there. The third time, she said Cosby was allegedly waiting for her. Inside his dressing room, she claimed Cosby wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear, “See that’s all we were going to do, make love. This is making love. He turned me around, hugged me and I left without saying a word.”
On July 29, a California judge ordered Cosby to give a deposition in the civil suit filed by Allred’s client Judy Huth. The deposition is scheduled for Oct. 9. “My hope for that deposition is that we will ask questions and he should provide answers,” said Allred. “We have a great deal of latitude. We are looking forward to his answers. We are entitled to answers.”
As previously reported, Huth claimed that Cosby, 78, molested her inside the Playboy Mansion when she was just 15 years old. Huth is just one of the dozens of women who’ve accused the comedian of some form of sexual abuse. The deposition will be the first time Cosby has spoken out about the sexual assault allegations against him since a separate case in 2005, where he admitted giving Quaaludes to a woman before having sex with her..
