Janice Dickinson appeared on Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, and the 59-year-old supermodel dropped a major bombshell when she revealed that Bill Cosby raped her in 1982.
Dickinson, who was at the height of her fame at the time, said Cosby contacted her regarding appearing on his hit show. After meeting up with him over dinner in Lake Tahoe, California, Dickinson claims Cosby gave her a glass of red wine and a pill, which she asked for because she had stomach cramps.
"The next morning I woke up, and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man," she told the show. "Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain. The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs."
So why is she just now coming forward? "I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do, and it happened to me, and this is the true story," she says. "I believe all the other women."
Two other women have accused the former sitcom star of sexual assault in the last few weeks, and back in 2004 a woman named Andrea Constand filed a suit against Cosby for sexual assault. Thirteen women then came forward with similar allegations, but the class action suit was settled in 2006. In 2005 two additional women came forward with accusations that the actor drugged and raped them, but no charges were ever filed.
Barbara Bowman, who appeared as a witness in Constand's case, wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post earlier this month about her ordeal, and shortly after that, former publicist Joan Tarshis came forward and revealed that the former comedian assaulted her on two occasions in 1969. "I want to talk about this now and I want to really support the other women who have gone through this," Tarshis told the show. "Now with people coming out, it's being handled differently."
And Cosby is being handled differently as well. Netflix has decided not to premiere Cosby's upcoming comedy special, Bill Cosby 77.
On Sunday, Cosby's lawyer, John P. Schmitt, issued the following statement:
"Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives."
No comments :
Post a Comment