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Beverly Johnson Says Bill Cosby Drugged Her, Then Dragged Her Down The Stairs In The 1980s
Beverly Johnson is accusing Bill Cosby of drugging her in the 1980s (Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images for WIN)
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Beverly Johnson has come forward with a story about Bill Cosby drugging her in the mid-1980s. The 64-year-old model and actress penned an article for Vanity Fair titled, "Bill Cosby Drugged Me. This Is My Story." She details the seemingly innocuous moments that led to the harrowing incident and how she managed to escape.
Johnson writes that she was given the opportunity to audition for a role as a pregnant woman on The Cosby Show. A series of events ensued—like long talks about her career and Cosby inviting Johnson and her daughter to his home for brunch—where Johnson says Cosby gained her trust. She writes, "Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times. It worked like a charm."
This would lead to a final meeting at his home to read lines for the TV show part. Johnson says Cosby insisted she have a drink from his cappuccino machine, and instantly she knew she had been drugged. She writes, "My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop."
It was then that she says screamed at him “You are a motherfucker aren’t you?” and continued to yell out "motherfucker" until he looked exasperated. She describes the next disturbing moments:
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I recall his seething anger at my tirade and then him grabbing me by my left arm hard and yanking all 110 pounds of me down a bunch of stairs as my high heels clicked and clacked on every step. I feared my neck was going to break with the force he was using to pull me down those stairs.
Cosby then got her outside and put her in a cab and she managed to get home, according to Johnson.
She says she was hesitant to speak out about this ordeal because she thought to herself, "Black men have enough enemies out there already, they certainly don’t need someone like you, an African American with a familiar face and a famous name, fanning the flames."
Johnson didn't come out with her story until she heard other women reveal their own accounts of Cosby drugging and raping them, including one of her longtime friends, supermodel Janice Dickinson.
Cosby didn't respond to Vanity Fair's request for a comment on the incident.
Her story comes on the heels of a growing number of victims claiming that Cosby drugged and raped them. Most recently, one woman Judy Huth, filed a lawsuit saying that he forced her to perform a sex act on him at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was just 15 years old. Although Cosby has stayed mum on the many allegations as of late, he filed a $33,000 lawsuit against one of his accusers, claiming she's trying to extort money from him.
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