“If Mr. Cosby’s legacy is destroyed, he has no one to blame but himself,” feminist attorney Gloria Allred said during a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday with three new accusers, alleging Cosby sexually assaulted them.
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Attorney Gloria Allred (second from left) during a news conference with three alleged victims of sexual abuse by comedian Bill Cosby: (from left) "Kacey," Lynn Neal, and Linda Kirkpatrick.
Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
The continuous story of Bill Cosby's downfall — now months long — has entered a chaotic stage. The day after his former Cosby Show co-star Phylicia Rashad vigorously defended him to the website ShowBiz411, feminist attorney Gloria Allred presented three new accusers who leveled sexual assault allegations against Cosby.
None of the three women had ever spoken publicly about Cosby before. In Allred's conference room at her law offices in Los Angeles, they tearfully told stories that, at this point, sound familiar: Cosby, whom they thought of as a "father figure or favorite uncle," either offered to mentor them, or offered them tickets to his show. But during the course of their meetings, according to their accusations, the now-77-year-old comedian sexually assaulted them.
Cosby's attorney Martin D. Singer did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for a comment. Cosby has never been charged with a crime.
Two of the women, Linda Kirkpatrick and Lynn Neal, alleged Cosby sexually assaulted them at the Las Vegas Hilton in the early 1980s when he performed there. Both women were in their twenties at the time, and both alleged that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them in his dressing room. According to Kirkpatrick, Cosby apologized to her the next day, which she thought was "sincere." She went to his dressing room again, they played backgammon, and, she alleged, he became sexually aggressive with her again — she said she "pushed him away."
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Cosby and an unidentified man with Kirkpatrick during the tennis tournament where she said they met. The photographer is unknown.
Photo of the photo: Ariane Lange/BuzzFeed News
The third woman, identified only as "Kacey," said she knew Cosby when she was an assistant to Tom Illius, one of his agents at William Morris, from 1990 through 1996. She said they had "a cordial professional relationship," and "over time, he began to take a more personal interest" in her.
Eventually, she said, she met him for lunch at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles, and in his bungalow, he gave her "a large white pill." "Next, I remember waking up in a bed with Mr. Cosby naked beneath his open robe," she said. "After that I did not want to see or work with Mr. Cosby so I left William Morris. I wanted to take legal action against Mr. Cosby at that time, but I was fearful that if I did, he would retaliate against me and my family."
As with previous accusers, none of the women's allegations fall within the statute of limitations in California or Nevada, and therefore, they cannot be prosecuted. And the women have no legal grounds on which to sue Cosby.
At a press conference in early December, with three other Cosby accusers, Allred called upon him to either waive the statute of limitations so these cases could go to court or to set aside $100 million so each woman with a claim against him could appear before independent arbitrators who would decide the merits of their allegations.
Allred said she has been in touch with representatives for Cosby, but as for her proposals, she said, "I will just say that they have not accepted my offer."
The Cosby story, which bubbled up throughout 2014, but really gained steam in the fall, eventually leading NBC to cancel its sitcom project with him, has only barely abated. It even factored into Sunday's premiere of Celebrity Apprentice, when Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show, was fired by Donald Trump for not calling Bill Cosby to donate to her team's cause. "I have not talked to Bill Cosby on the phone in I don't know how long," she told Trump.
The episode was filmed last spring, prior to Cosby's downfall, but representatives for NBC did not respond to BuzzFeed News earlier this week about why the network chose not to air a disclaimer before or during Celebrity Apprentice that might have made the scene between Pulliam and Trump less uncomfortable to watch for viewers. After the episode aired, in an interview with TVLine, Pulliam was asked about the allegations against her former TV dad. "I really can't speak to that because that wasn't my experience with him," she said. "I can only speak to the man who gave back to so many schools and charities and created such an amazing show that's changed the landscape of television."
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