|
Cosby Gets Aways with Drugging and Serial Rape
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
November 21, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
With 10 women coming out of the woodwork accusing
77-year-old Comedian Bill Cosby with rape and drugging, it’s high time for civil
suits alleging damages to get started.
While California has a six-year statute of limitations on criminal sexual
assault or rape, there’s no statue of limitation on civil suits. Allegations about drugging, rape,
oral copulation, coerced masturbation, are more than enough to sue the comedian
for psychological, physical and economic damages. Cosby’s reluctance of face the media
to deny the allegations directly suggest that he’s worried possible perjury
should it be proved in civil court there’s a factual basis to the allegations. Saying the media’s in a
“feeding frenzy,” Cosby’s lawyer Martin D. Singer called Cosby’s accusers “liars
and opportunists,” doesn’t categorically deny that his client drugged and
sexually assaulted the alleged victims.
Cosby’s attorney and Cosby himself have been very careful not to deny the
charges, other than discrediting the victims.
Neither Cosby nor Singer can explain why at least 10, and up to 14 women,
have accused the iconic star of the “Cosby Show” of non-consensual sexual
assault, covertly drugging victims.
“I want to be one of those women.
One more nail in the coffin,” said 1967 former Playboy Bunny Carla Ferrigno, the
latest in a string of women to come forward.
Cosby’s attorney likes to point out the 30-some-year delay in coming
forward. Delaying disclosures of
sexual victimization is not unusual for women suffering a post-sexual assault
syndrome, dealing with extreme shame, guilt and fear. Former childhood actress
Renita Chaney told KDKA-Pittsburg she met Cosby at age 15 when she acted in his
educational TV segment called “Picture Pages.”
Chaney recalls Cosby giving her drinks as a 15-year-old in his hotel room
sometime in the 1980s. “I
remember the taste of his cigar on his breath, and I didn’t like it,” said
Chaney. I remember another time
when I woke up in my bed the next day and he was leaving, he mentioned you
should probably lose a little weight.
I thought that was odd, how would he know this/” suspecting she was
sexually assaulted. Unlike the
other cases of alleged sexual assault, if Chaney believes she was drugged and
raped by Cosby, there’s no statute of limitations when it comes to child sexual
abuse. No matter how sketchy the
facts, all that’s needed in a case of child sexual abuse are allegations,
prompting an investigation by Child Protective Services. Former model and actress Angelia
Leslie told the Daily News that Cosby forced her to masturbate him in a hotel
room in 1992.
Pointing to a “lack of proof,” Cosby’s attorney Martin Singer doesn’t
deny the charges, only lambasting accusers as being “liars and opportunists.” Actress Louisa Moritz told TMZ she
was sexually assaulted by Cosby in 1971 in the Green Room, awaiting an
appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.
Insisting Cosby whipped out his penis and tried to get her to orally copulate him suggests
hypersexuality, where it’s difficult to contain impulses. Boca Raton, Florida nurse Theresa
Serignese was 19 in 1976 when she encountered Cosby backstage in Las Vegas. She claimed Cosby gave her two
pills, saying, “take these.” “My
next memory is clearly feeling drugged, being without my clothes, standing up,”
Serignese. “Bill Cosby was behind
me, having sex with me.” Telling
her story in the Washington Post, Barbara Bowman claimed Cosby drugged her when
she was 17.
Bowman, a minor at the time, recalls blacking out in a hotel room in 1982,
waking up wearing a T-shirt, certain she was raped by Cosby. Calling her claims in the Washington
Post “false and outlandish,” Singer sought to discredit the avalanche of sexual
assault accusations. Writing in
“Entertainment Tonight,” Tamara Green claimed she was drugged and accosted by
Cosby. “People coming out nowhere
with this sort of inane yarn is what happens in a media-driven feeding frenzy,”
blaming the slew of allegations on today’s pop culture. Another victim, Andrea Constand,
filed a civil suit in 2005, threatening testimony of 13 victims. Cosby settled out-of-court for an
undisclosed sum, despite continuing the denials. “The fact that they’re being repeated does not make them true,” said Singer, still not
categorically refuting the charges, despite calling witness statements
“decades-old, discredited allegations.”
At least two of Cosby’s victims, Barbara Bowman and Renita Chaney, were minors
at the time Cosby sexually assaulted them.
Whether Child Protective Services follows up or not, there’s no
statute-of-limitations when it comes to child sexual abuse. Whether Cosby’s victims were adults or
not, like 19-year-old aspiring comedy writer Joan Tarshis, Cosby’s victims were
either directly sexually assaulted or drugged and then assaulted by the former
Jell-O pitchman. Declining to comment in
two recently recorded interviews by the Associated Press and National Public
Radio, Cosby hasn’t helped his credibility staying mum. Worried about possible perjury suits,
Cosby has buttoned his lips while the drug-and-rape allegations fly
fast-and-furious. With Cosby facing the
civil courts and at least two counts of child abuse still pending, Cosby’s TV
career has abruptly unofficially ended.
About the Author
|
