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Gloria Allred Demands Bill Cosby Pay $100 Million For Decades-Old Rape Allegations
Attorney Gloria Allred came forward today with three new stories from women who said Bill Cosby assaulted them. She also demanded the comedian face consequences so that he could "end the nightmare for everyone."
Allred appeared at her firm's offices with the women—Helen Hayes, Beth Ferrier and a woman identified as "Chelan," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Two of the women had a similar story to the rest of the other who have accused Cosby: that he gave them a drink or pill, and then assaulted them after they passed out. The third said she was groped at a restaurant. Allred said today that she has "lost count" of how many accusers there have been. There have been at least 17.
During the press conference, Allred proposed two options for Cosby that she said would put an end to the seemingly endless string of allegations and "begin the healing process" for everyone involved. The first was that Cosby could waive the state of limitations for the rape charges, many of which are over a decade old, and face the allegations in court. Or, she offered, he could set aside $100 million to conduct an informal hearing before retired judges who would listen to the accusers and then decide the merits of their allegations and determine damages.
"If he would like this to end, this would be a very positive way for him and the victims," Allred said.
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Chelan claimed that she met Cosby when she was 17 and working at the Las Vegas Hilton. He invited her to his hotel room, and gave her alcohol and a blue pill. She went to lie down, and Cosby soon lay down next to her. She said Cosby then began rubbing himself on her leg and touching her nipple, and then she blacked out. She said she awoke several hours later to Cosby clapping his hands saying, "Daddy says wake up." She said he then gave her $1,500.
Ferrier said that she and Cosby had an affair, but she broke it off. Later, Cosby asked her to come to one of his performances in Denver. She says that he gave her a cup of coffee while she was backstage and that she blacked out. She said she later woke up alone in the backseat of her car, parked in an alley behind the venue, with her clothes disheveled. Ferrier had previously testified as a Jane Doe in 2005 during Andrea Constand's lawsuit against Cosby. Constand settled out of court in 2006.
Hayes said that she met Cosby at a Clint Eastwood's Celebrity Tennis Tournament in Pebble Beach. She claimed he later groped her at a restaurant, and said "his behavior was like that of a predator."
So far, Cosby has denied the allegations and refused to comment on them. Some of his more recent accusations come from former model Janice Dickinson, who recently gave a tear-filled interview in which she claimed Cosby gave her a pill for cramps which caused her to pass out, after which he raped her. A lawsuit filed yesterday by a woman named Judy Huth accuses Cosby of sexually assaulting her when she was 15 at a party at the Playboy Mansion.
Huth's case may be free of the statute of limitations barrier that some of the other women face. Under California law, someone who is the victim of sexual assault as a child can later sue up to three years after they realize that the assault caused them emotional harm, USA Today reports.
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