Two more Bill Cosby alleged victims came forward on Wednesday, Dec. 3, as civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred urged the former Cosby Show star to face his accusers in court, or set up a $100 million fund to settle their sexual abuse claims.
The proposal to face the claims in court was made by Allred at a press conference in Los Angeles where she was accompanied by three of Cosby's alleged victims, two of whom had not spoken publicly before.
“It could be advantageous for Mr. Cosby to give up the statute of limitations because there is a huge cloud on his reputation,” Allred told reporters. “If Mr. Cosby believes all the women are being untruthful, then this is his opportunity to prove it.”
As an alternative to facing the women in court, she also suggested to Cosby that another course of action would be to set up a $100 million fund, and let a panel of retired judges “determine the merits of each claim” and award compensation.
One of the accusers, Beth Ferrier, identified as Jane Doe No. 5 in the 2005 lawsuit that Cosby settled with former accuser Andrea Constand, added her plea to Aldred’s.
“If Mr. Cosby would accept Gloria Allred’s proposal, I would be able to have my day in court. I want Mr. Cosby to face justice for what he has done to me and so many other women,” accuser Beth Ferrier, who claims the comedian drugged her coffee and sexually assaulted her thirty years ago.
One new accuser, who gave her first name Chelan, claimed Cosby had invited her to the Las Vegas Hilton in 1986, promising to introduce her to someone from Ford modeling agency. She claims the actor gave her a pill for a head cold, which he said was an antihistamine. She claims he sexually abused her once she had passed out.
Helen Hayes, the other new accuser, claimed she was abused in 1973, during Clint Eastwood’s celebrity tennis tournament in Pebble Beach, California. She says the actor grabbed her breast when he approached her having dinner in a restaurant.
A few hours after Allred's proposal was made, Cosby pulled out of two forthcoming comedy shows scheduled for this weekend in Tarrytown, New York, TMZ reported.
