Bill Cosby's accusers tell their stories
THE WOMEN accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault face a long and difficult legal road. He's been criminally charged with nothing, has admitted nothing, and many of the alleged offenses occurred years ago. Still, the accusers say they have stories that must be told -- and several of them have been telling their stories to our Tracy Smith:
At the height of his power, Bill Cosby really was "America's dad." On his galactically successful show, the laughs came with lessons on morality ... responsibility ... love.
And that makes what's happening now all the harder to comprehend.
An ever-widening circle of women have accused the comedian of sexual assault -- more than enough to fill the cover of New York Magazine this past July.
The charges have a common thread: Bill Cosby drugged me ... kissed me ... touched me ... raped me. But behind each photo is a story.
Lili Bernard was a sometime-cast member on "The Cosby Show," which was taped in New York City. Bernard says Cosby, whom she then considered a mentor and father-figure, told her to meet him in Atlantic City in 1990.
"He told me I had to go to Atlantic City to meet a producer that he wanted to introduce me to who would further my career," she told Smith.
Once there, she says Cosby gave her a drink that made her violently ill, and then helped her to the bathroom to -- she thought -- help her clean up.
Smith asked, "Because you're still thinking he's this father figure?"
"Yeah, he's gonna wash me," said Bernard. "And the next thing I remember, now he's not only pulling off my skirt and my jacket, but he's also taking off my stockings and my shoes, and I must have passed out at this point, 'cause the next thing I remember ... "
When she woke up naked and groggy in a hotel bathtub, she says she heard Cosby's voice.
"I remember him saying, 'Are you okay, Bernard?' And then, I must have passed out again in the tub naked, I'm totally naked, I don't know how I got into the tub. So I imagine he must have either carried me or lifted me or dragged me, I don't know."
"Did you think about going to the police?" Smith asked.
"Yes, I told Bill Cosby I would call the police. I said I would call the police, and he threatened me that if I called the police that he -- the minute that I come back from the police -- would go the police and file a police report against me for false accusation and defamation. 'And who are they going to believe, Bernard? You or me?'"
"What did you think? Who are they gonna believe?"
"They would never believe me, you know?" she replied. "He was one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry. And he was a philanthropist and he was a moralist. He was Bill Cosby. So who the heck's gonna believe me?"
Bill Cosby has not been charged with any crime, nor has he, or his attorneys, admitted any wrongdoing.
He did say in a 2005 court deposition that he kept quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with.
Now, he's being sued by several other women, and has another deposition coming up on October 9.
- Is Bill Cosby in legal jeopardy after sedative admission? ("CBS This Morning")
- Bill Cosby's accusers -- A timeline of alleged sexual assault claims (Entertainment Tonight)
- Bill Cosby addresses allegations: "I've never seen anything like this"
With regard to the legal concept "Innocent until proven guilty," professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles says as far as Cosby is concerned, "he's pretty much been convicted in the court of public opinion. And that's in part because so many women have come forward. And he himself admitted that he gave them the drugs. And the story starts to add up that he probably did that because they weren't consenting, and therefore he should be held responsible for his acts."
But Levenson says that for many Cosby accusers, the clock has run out for any criminal charges.
"It is certainly possible that Bill Cosby will live out the rest of his life without being criminally charged for any of these offenses," she said. "We know he's facing lawsuits, and that's something different. But in terms of going to jail, not so likely."
And if the allegations are true, Cosby has been assaulting women for decades.
Victoria Valentino was Playboy's Miss September 1963, and an aspiring actress who would get the occasional bit part.
The high point of her life was when her son, Tony, was born. And the very lowest moment came in 1969, when -- a week after his sixth birthday -- he accidentally drowned in a backyard pool. "This Saturday, my son would have been 52," Valentino told Smith. "He was everything. I breathed for him."
To cheer her up, a friend encouraged Valentino to get an acting job. "She said, 'You need a job. You're an actress. Let me introduce you to my buddy, Bill Cosby."
Over dinner, she says, Cosby started passing out pills. "So then he reached over, because I was not being bubbly, and he put a pill down next to my glass and said, 'Here, take this. You'll feel better.'"
"Did it make you feel better?"
"No. I started feeling like I was going to drop my face in the plate."
Valentino says Cosby drove them to a Hollywood apartment where her friend passed out cold. It was then, she says, that Cosby forced himself on her.
Smith asked, "Did you think about going to the police?"
"It was the '60s, and in those days, rape victims were re-victimized," Valentino replied. "It wasn't compassion and protection of the victim. Oh, no, it was, 'Well, what were you wearing?'"
So Valentino kept her mouth shut. And for decades, despite rumors of indiscretions, Cosby's secret was pretty much safe.
But Cosby became a sort of moral crusader in recent years, scolding young African-Americans ("Please, stop it. Stop your cursing"). Some saw his preaching as the height of hypocrisy, and late last year, standup comedian Hannibal Burress openly called Cosby out as a rapist:
"'I was on TV in the '80s, I can talk down to you, because I had a successful sitcom!' Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby!"
The video went viral, and inspired a wave of Bill Cosby accusers.
When asked why she came forward, Valentino replied, "Hannibal Buress. We didn't all conspire - 'Hey, let's meet in 2014 and all get together and nail this guy, you know, and, oh, yeah, we'll have the big reunion,' you know? I mean, who would have thought? It was like one more woman coming out and you're going, 'Oh, my God. Oh, my God.'"
We reached out to Bill Cosby; his representative told us that there would be no statement or comment for this story.
But Bill Cosby's legacy has already taken a big hit. His name and image are being removed from places as diverse as Walt Disney World and Atlanta's historically-black Spelman College.
"I think heroes so die hard in the black community, for pretty clear reasons -- we haven't had a lot of heroes for a real long time," said Columbia University visiting scholar Obrey Hendricks, who says that revulsion over the Cosby allegations is pretty universal.
"There are many who just don't want to believe it, they can't believe it, they don't want to see that their hero does something like this. But 50 women have accused him of rape, and that's sort of hard to get over and to overlook," said Hendricks. "And if only one of them is telling the truth, then that means that he's a rapist."
Some of those women are working together now to change statute of limitations laws, if not for them, then for future victims of assault.
And that could be Bill Cosby's real legacy.
Smith asked, "Could it be that Bill Cosby goes to his grave with all of this still going on?"
Professor Levenson replied, "I think one of the strategies here is to say to Bill Cosby, 'You will never have peace. For the rest of your life we will be pursuing you. We may not win at every turn, but we will be there.'"
For more info:
- Laurie Levenson, Loyola Law School
- Dr. Obrey Hendricks, Department of Religion, Columbia University
- oberyhendricks.net
- lilibernard.com