How Cosby's Accusers Are Fighting To Fix The Legal System That Shut Them Out
The first time Lise-Lotte Lublin saw a headline about Bill Cosby last year, she felt an ache in the center of her body. That ache grew stronger each time another woman came forward with an allegation against the 78-year-old comedian.
Lublin says she met Cosby 26 years ago in Las Vegas. She was 23 at the time, a model -- as so many of Cosby's alleged victims were -- and was thrilled to be invited to the comedian's hotel suite where she assumed she'd be auditioning for him. He pressured her to drink despite the fact that Lublin was not a drinker. But she says she felt uncomfortable and eventually gave in to his demands. She remembers feeling "dizzy" and "disoriented" as he straddled her on the couch and stroked her hair. She eventually woke up in her own home without a clue how she got there.
It wasn't until Lublin heard former modelJanice Dickinson recount her storylast November that she finally realized what had happened to her that night in 1989. Over 50 women have now accused Bill Cosbyof drugging, assaulting or raping them, and yet he remains a free man.
The other women's stories felt so intimately similar to Lublin's that hearing each contributed to an "internal pain" she says she couldn't find any relief for knowing she would never get to seek justice. The statute of limitations on sexual assault was just four years in Lublin's state of Nevada, which meant that her chance to press criminal charges against Cosby was up long ago.
By Christmas, Lublin reached a mental breaking point and knew she had to dosomething. "The law doesn’t allow me to do anything about this, so we have to change the law, this isn’t right," she recalls saying to her husband Benjamin. And together, that's what they did.
In May, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval's signed a bill (AB212) into law which lengthened the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of rape in Nevada to 20 years. The Lublins' accomplishment has inspired other Cosby accusers, "sisters" as they often refer to each other, to try and replicate that success in their own states. At least three other Cosby accusers are tirelessly fighting to abolish or extend the statutes of limitations which so often prevent sexual assault victims from seeking justice.
Thirty-four states and Washington D.C. have statutes of limitations on rape and sexual assaultthat range from three years to 30, which means that a victim can't bring charges against perpetrators after that time has passed. And since statutes of limitations for these crimes aren't defined at a federal level, that leaves activists with a piecemeal battle.
Gloria Allred, an attorney representing at least a dozen of Bill Cosby's accusers, calls these laws "arbitrary." Considering how long it often takes for victims to come forward, statutes of limitations "bars them from pursuing justice," says Rebecca O'Connor, VP for Public Policy at Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).
According to RAINN,an estimated 68 percent of sexual assault goes unreported. The reasons are many. Some victims feel too ashamed to speak up. Some feel intimidated by the criminal justice system. Some feel threatened by their perpetrator and are paralyzed by the fear of retaliation. And as Allred heard repeatedly from her clients, "against the rich powerful man, they don’t think they'll be believed."
That assumption is not without merit. When the Lublins learned the first step in changing a law was to drum up support for their cause,they created a Change.org petition. Along with the desired support, came attacks on social media from people whostilldefend Cosby.
"Someone called Lise a dirty f**king whore... and that’s the world we we're living in," Benjamin said over the phone.
The couple persevered, determined to find an assembly member to draft their bill. "I saturated them with emails, with phone calls. I’d call three, four, five, six times just leaving messages over and over again," Benjamin said.
Finally, Nevada Assembly Member Irene Bustamante Adams returned his phone call, listened to the couple's plea, and decided she was on board. Two weeks later, they started to draft a bill to completely abolish the statutes of limitations for cases of rape and sexual assault.
To reach the finish line, the Lublins would have to gain support from as many government entities as possible, have their bill approved by the judiciary committee, and eventually testify in front of the state assembly where a vote would take place.
Benjamin made dozens of phone calls -- to the rape crisis center in Nevada, to the district attorney's office, to the sheriff's department, to as many relevant parties he could get to say, "Yes, we're on board."
The chairman of the judiciary committee agreed to move the bill forward, but amended their request to abolish the statute of limitations to extend it to 20 years instead. That moment felt like a failure to the Lublins, but they ultimately decided to take the deal, realizing that allowing a victim 20 years to come forward was far better than four.
On May 26, the Lublins drove to Carson City for the hearing, armed with facts and statistics they felt would make their case airtight. They both read statements, and Allred read statements from three women who claim to have been assaulted by Cosby in Nevada. The district attorney's office as well as the sheriff's department explained how the current statutes of limitations prevent them from productively doing their jobs. The bill was signed into law, and in that moment, Lise felt "elation."
Throughout the hearing, neither the Lublins nor Allred mentioned Bill Cosby's name. "This was about a change for women. For victims. For men and children who have been assaulted and it became something that was larger than just Benjamin's pain and my pain. ...It was difficult day in and day out, knowing that you can’t go after the person who hurt you, and it's because of something as simple as an antiquated law that was written so many years ago," Lise said.
A few months ago, the Lublins Skyped into a meeting in California where a group of women are organizinga movement called EndRapeSOLwith that exact goal. In July, 89-year-old feminist activist Ivy Bottini formed the group after watching dozens of Cosby survivors come forward without any path to legal justice available to them. Co-chair Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College, says the group is currently in the organizing stage, and is already making progress.
Sen. Connie M. Leyva announced Mondaythat she'll introduce legislation that would eliminate the statutes of limitations on several sex-related crimes. In California, it currently stands at 10 years.
Two Cosby accusers, Lili Bernard and Victoria Valentino are at the forefront of the movement. Bernard, an actress, appeared as a guest star on "The Cosby Show" in the early 1990s and says she saw Cosby as a mentor -- before he drugged and raped her. She says he threatened her life were she to tell the police, and she assumed she would stay silent her whole life.
Two decades later, Bernard was still terrified to come forward -- she recalls canceling multiple meetings with Allred out of fear that publicizing her story would ruin her life. In May 2015, something shifted.
"I came to the understanding that if I were to remain silent, I would be enabling Bill Cosby. Because that’s what rapists do, they scare you to silence," she said over the phone.
But like Lublin, "coming forward" only meant telling her story to the public -- her window to press charges has long been closed.
So when Victoria Valentino -- a former Playboy bunny who says Bill Cosby drugged and raped her "doggy style" in 1969 -- invited Bernard to an organizing meeting for Bottini's group, she jumped.
At the time, the movement didn't yet have a name. Bernard's 18-year-old son came up with the hashtag #EndRapeSOL.
In a video posted to EndRapeSOL's Facebook page, Lili Bernard discusses why the movement matters.
Offline, the group is planning a "Walk of Shame" rally on Cosby's Hollywood star on November 21. Heldman says they'll have T-shirts, signs, bull horns, and several speakers telling their stories. Cosby's star is located in a highly-trafficked area, so she anticipates it will get a lot of attention.
Bernard, who was once terrified to talk about her experience, now feels empowered by it. She also thinks it makes complete sense that so many women who say they were victimized by Cosby decades ago didn't feel safe going public until recently. "Often times [survivors come forward] in their 50s, 60s. We've lived life, we're less afraid, we feel less vulnerable, we have a lot less to lose," she explained.
Valentino summed up why those two factors -- that speaking out is empowering, but that realization often comes with time -- doesn't work in a survivor's favor. "By the time women find the courage to report rape and sexual assault most often the SOL is up! Then, there is no recourse for them," she said.
In a video posted to EndRapeSOL's Facebook page, Victoria Valentino asks, "What is the worth of a woman?"
In Colorado, Beth Ferrier, one of the Jane Does inAndrea Constand's 2005 civil case against Cosby, called 60 members of the state's House of Representatives before Rhonda Fields answered. Currently, the statute of limitations for rape or sexual assault is 10 years (with an exemption for DNA matches). Fields has written a bill that will be read to the house in January.
Ferrier, also a former model, came forward for the second time in December 2014. Around 1984, Ferrier says she passed out after drinking a cappuccino Cosby gave her. She woke up in the back of her car with her bra unhooked.
Until very recently, Ferrier had no idea what a statute of limitation was, and gathers that many victims who wait to report are unaware as well. And that's what's fueling her efforts.
"It's not about retribution, it's just something that needed to change for the longest time," Ferrier said.
Watch Beth Ferrier's exclusive interview with ET for more information about her case and the 2005 deposition.
Though the Lublins were able to get their bill passed in what Allred says was "lightning speed," it's likely that not every fight for state legislative change would occur so smoothly.
Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor of law at Northwestern University, explains that prosecutors don't want to bring "old stale cases that are based on evidence that is not likely to be as reliable." Years later, the prosecution might not have access to evidence that could support their case, which also means that a defendant would not have access to the best evidence that could support his or her defense.
Also, if many old cases didn’t result in convictions, "there are perhaps some concerns for that additional cost that may or may or not be warranted by the conviction rate," she said, noting that this thinking is not necessarily aligned with her personal opinion.
Heldman and her students are currently conducting a cost analysis hoping to prove that the cost of rape is actually more than the cost to prosecute -- an argument they could present to those who oppose abolishing or even lengthening statutes of limitations. She says that over a survivor's lifetime,the cost of rape-- lost wages, counseling, cost of trauma, care -- adds up to about $151,000.
Allred stresses that abolishing statutes of limitations would not mean denying anybody a fair trial. Regardless of when the case is brought, there still needs to be evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to get a conviction.
For Lise, the win in Nevada has helped her heal immensely and that ache in her body has started to subside. "When it first happened, I felt like I wasn’t a human, like I wasn’t a person anymore. I was stripped of something. Doing this gave me back the ability to feel like a person again," she said.
And Benjamin, though happy with the outcome, plans to start the process from the beginning to fight for abolishment of the statue of limitations (rather than a 20-year extension) once more. "We'll be back in 2017!" he said.
UPDATE:This article has been updated to reflect the most recent plans for the rally in California. The group had earlier discussed preparing to be arrested for crowding the sidewalk, but that's no longer the case. They are not planning for any arrests.
Also on HuffPost:
Andrea Constand
Constand alleged that she visited the comedian at his Cheltenham home in January 2004. NBC News reported that she claimed Cosby had given her pills that he said were "herbal medication." According to The Smoking Gun, she claimed that after she took the pills, Cosby "laid her down on a sofa and proceeded to sexually assault her. She awoke hours later to discover her clothes and undergarments in disarray," when she said "she was greeted by a bathrobe-clad Cosby."Constand filed a lawsuit against Cosby in Nov. 2006. Thirteen other women, 12 of whom asked to remain anonymous, are mentioned in court papers as Jane Doe witnesses. The case was settled out of court that November. Read more here.
Shawn Upshaw
In a 2005 interview with the National Enquirer, Upshaw claimed to have had a consensual affair with Cosby, and that the actor is the father of her daughter. She alsoclaimed that Cosby had had drugged her at some point in the '70s. "He fixed me a drink that looked strange to me -- there were several layers of color to it," she told the Enquirer. "I didn't want to drink it, but he kept telling me to finish it, and I did. I immediately felt very out of sorts. I knew definitely that I had been heavily drugged. Finally he took me to the bedroom and put me to bed. That's the last I remember of the night. I woke up in the morning knowing I'd had sex during my sleep." Read more here.
Tamara Green
Green came forward shortly after Constand's allegations had been reported in the media. The California lawyer, who was 57 at the time she went public, spoke with Matt Lauer on the "Today Show" about an alleged incident with Cosby in the 1970s. Green claimed that during a working lunch in Los Angeles, Cosby offered what he said was cold medicine. After about 10 minutes, she was "almost literally face down on the table of this restaurant." Green said that after the comedian drove her home, he began taking her clothes off to put her into bed. She told Lauer that, "He had gone from helping me to groping me and kissing me and touching me and handling me and you know, taking off my clothes ... I actually told him that he would have to kill me, that if he didn't kill me and he tried to rape me, it was going to go very badly." Read more here.
Beth Ferrier
Identified as Jane Doe #5 in Constand’s lawsuit, the 56-year-old claimed that after she had ended a consensual affair with Cosby in the mid-'80s, the comedian drugged her after a performance in Denver. TheFree Republic reported in 2005 that Ferrier said Cosby gave her a coffee after the show, and that she immediately began to feel "woozy." A few hours later, she came to with little idea of what had happened. "I woke up and I was in the back of my car all alone," she told the Free Republic. "My clothes were a mess. My bra was undone. My top was untucked. And I'm sitting there going, 'Oh my God. Where am I?' What's going on? I was so out of it. It was just awful." Read more here.
Barbara Bowman
Philadelphia Magazine interviewed Bowman, also a witness in Constand's case, who claims to have met Cosby in the '80s as an aspiring actress. In December 2006, Bowman told People that Cosby sexually assaulted her on separate occasions in Reno and New York City. Read more here.
Joan Tarshis
In an interview with Hollywood Elsewhere, the music industry publicist and journalist claimed that Cosby sexually assaulted her twice in 1969 when she was 19. The former actress and Cosby were both working at Universal Studios at the time. Cosby often pushed alcohol on her, she said, and on one occasion she fell unconscious at his bungalow after having a cocktail he made. "The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," Tarshis wrote. "I thought I was being clever when I told him I had an infection and he would catch it and his wife would know he had sex with someone. But he just found another orifice to use." Read more here.
Linda Joy Traitz
After first raising her claims in a post to Facebook, the 63-year-old Traitz told the Washington Post about an experience she said she had with Cosby more than 40 years ago. After offering to drive her home from her job as a waitress at a diner he co-owned, Traitz says the actor offered her pills, "began to get sexually aggressive" with her and "wouldn’t take 'No' for an answer." Read more here.
Janice Dickinson
During an interview with "Entertainment Tonight," the supermodel, 59, accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her at a meeting in 1982 to discuss a possible role for her on "The Cosby Show." "He gave me wine and a pill. 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 said. Read more here.
Therese Serignese
Serignese said she met Cosby in 1976 in Las Vegas, where he invited her to come see the show he was headlining at the Hilton. She says that after the show, she was escorted back to the green room, where she claims Cosby gave her two white pills. She told The Huffington Post, "The next memory I have was I was in a bathroom and I was kind of bending forward and he was behind me having sex with me ... I was just there, thinking 'I'm on drugs, I'm drugged.' I felt drugged and I was being raped and it was kind of surreal. My frame of mind was that it would be over soon and I could just get out of there." Read more here.
Carla Ferrigno
The actress and wife of actor Lou Ferrigno alleged that Cosby invited her to his home in 1967 where he attempted to force himself on her. "He walked over to me and grabbed me, pulls me really tight to him, kisses me on the mouth, like really, really rough. And I just took my hands and I pushed him away," Ferrigno told KFI radio station. She said that after pushing him away, she immediately left the house. Read more here.
Louisa Moritz
The 68-year-old former actress, best known for her role on the 1970s show "Love American Style," claims that in 1971 Cosby forced her to perform oral sex on him in the green room of Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show," TMZ reported. Read more here.
Renita Chaney Hill
Hill, now 47, told CBS Pittsburgh that she met Cosby in Pittsburgh in the 1980s when she was a 15-year-old model. She was cast in Cosby's "Picture Pages," a series of educational TV segments, and said she was in contact with the comedian over the next four years. Hill said that she now believes Cosby drugged her on more than one occasion, insisting that she drink despite being underage. "One time, I remember just before I passed out, I remember him kissing and touching me and I remember the taste of his cigar on his breath, and I didn't like it," Hill told CBS Pittsburgh. "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 odd, how would he know that? I always thought it was odd that after I had this drink I would end up in my bed the next morning and I wouldn't remember anything." Hill says that she cut off contact with Cosby when she was 19. Read more here.
Angela Leslie
![<p><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The model and actress </span><a style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; width: auto; float: none; color: #0088cc; text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/exclusive-actress-accuses-bill-cosby-sex-assault-article-1.2018698" target="_hplink">told the New York Daily News that Cosby sexually assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel room</a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"> in 1992, claiming that "With his hand on top of mine, [Cosby] had me massage his penis." </span><a style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; width: auto; float: none; color: #0088cc; text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/exclusive-actress-accuses-bill-cosby-sex-assault-article-1.2018698" target="_hplink">Read more here</a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">.</span></p>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/tkd_IRz648KSOPGl5ESCog--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/559c503f1400005b01eb8034.jpg)
The model and actress told the New York Daily News that Cosby sexually assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1992, claiming that "With his hand on top of mine, [Cosby] had me massage his penis." Read more here.
Kristina Ruehli
The 71-year-old says she was one of the anonymous Jane Does scheduled to testify in Constand's 2005 lawsuit. Ruehli alleged to Philadelphia Magazine that in 1965, at age 22, she met Cosby while working as a secretary at a talent agency. She says Cosby invited her to a party, and when she showed up, it was only the two of them. "He proceeded to pour some bourbon," she told Philadelphia Magazine, and she felt foggy after two drinks. She said she now believes he drugged her. According to Ruehli, her next memory was being in Cosby's bed. "He was attempting to force me into oral sex," she said, adding, "It never went past that. I immediately came to and was immediately very sick. I pushed myself away and ran to the bathroom and threw up." Read more here.
Michelle Hurd
The actress posted about her alleged experiences with Cosby when she was a stand-in on “The Cosby Show” on Facebook. Hurd, who has appeared on shows like "Gossip Girl" and "Law & Order: SVU" wrote: "It started innocently, lunch in his dressing room, daily, then onto weird acting exercises were he would move his hands up and down my body, (can’t believe I fell for that) I was instructed to NEVER tell anyone what we did together, (he said other actors would become jealous) and then fortunately, I dodged the ultimate bullet with him when he asked me to come to his house, take a shower so we could blow dry my hair and see what it looked like straightened. At that point my own red flags went off and I told him, “No, I’ll just come to work tomorrow with my hair straightened.” Neither Hurd nor her representatives have responded to media requests for further comment. Read more here.
Victoria Valentino
The former Playboy Playmate was identified in a Washington Post story that detailed many of the alleged victims' experiences with Cosby. Valentino recalls meeting Cosby in 1970 through a mutual friend. She describes a dinner she had with Cosby and another friend, at which the three of them took pills. They drove to an apartment, and then, Valentino says, "He came over to me and sat down on the love seat and opened his fly and grabbed my head and pushed my head down ... And then he turned me over. It was like a waking nightmare." Read more here.
Jewel Allison
The former model told the New York Daily News that she was introduced to Cosby in the ‘80s by her agent, Sue Charney -- who also discovered Janice Dickinson. Allison recalls accepting a dinner invitation at Cosby’s New York brownstone where he gave her a glass of wine that made her feel "woozy and ill." She told the Daily News that "Cosby grabbed her hand and placed it on his genitals." Then, she recalls, “He turned me around and said, 'Let’s get you home.' At the door, he gave me a very hard embrace and a hard kiss." Read more here.
Donna Motsinger
The now 73-year-old told the New York Post that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1971 when she was a waitress at a jazz club in California. Motsinger also claims that she was Jane Doe #8 in Andrea Contand's 2005 civil lawsuit against Cosby. Read more here.
Judy Huth
Helen Hayes
In a press conference hosted by lawyer Gloria Allred, Northern California resident Helen Hayes said that she met Cosby in 1973 at Clint Eastwood's Celebrity Tennis Tournament. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Hayes recalls that Cosby followed her and two friends around. "We felt we were safe," she said, adding. "But then when he found us in the last restaurant he approached me from behind and reached over my shoulder and grabbed my right breast ... his behavior was like that of a predator." According to Variety, during the press conference, Allred challenged Cosby to waive the statue of limitations and stand trial.Read more here.
Chelan
During the December 3rd press conference, a woman named Chelan said she met Cosby in Las Vegas when she was 17 years old and an aspiring model. She alleges that the comedian gave her a blue pill. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter,she said, "I laid down. He laid down next to me on the bed and began pinching my left nipple and humping my leg while he was grunting. Chelan remembers passing out, then waking up many hours later. She says Cosby gave her $1,500. Read more here.
P.J. Masten
The now 64-year-old former Playboy bunny told the NY Daily news that Cosby "attacked" her in 1979. Masten was working at the Playboy Club in Chicago and met the comedian who told her he'd take her out to dinner. She arrived at his hotel room and recalls he was smoking cigars with friends and offered her a drink. “I don’t remember anything after I drank it... The next thing I knew it was 4 o’clock in the morning and I woke up naked with this disgusting man next to me," she told The News. “I have no idea what he gave me, but I woke up feeling very groggy and very sore. I knew I had been raped.” Read more here.
Beverly Johnson
Chloe Goins
Linda Kirkpatrick
n a Wednesday Jan. 7 press conference, lawyer Gloria Allred introduced three women who have come forward for the first time to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault. Kirkpatrick claimed that she met Cosby in 1981, where he invited her to see his show. She alleges that he offered her a drink during a party in his dressing room, after which she blacked out and came to to find Cosby on top of her, kissing her forcefully. Kirkpatrick says that she went back to the show the following night after Cosby apologized, and that he aggressively kissed her and tried to take his advances further despite her insistence that she was not interested in a sexual encounter. She managed to leave before any further assault occurred. Read more here.
Lynn Neal
During the Jan. 7 press conference, Neal said that she met Cosby while she was working as a therapist at a health club where he was a regular client. Cosby allegedly invited her to see his show, where he offered her drinks and would not let her eat. After the show, Neal says she began feeling "disoriented and confused." She claims that Cosby then walked her to his dressing room where he raped her. Read more here.
Kacey
Also during the Jan. 7 press conference, Kacey, who did not want her real name shared, alleges that Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 1996 while she was working for Tom Illius, Cosby's agent at the William Morris Agency. Kacey revealed that she had a friendly working relationship with Cosby and considered him a "father figure or favorite uncle." She and her children had dined with Cosby and other colleagues before, and she took calls from him at her home. During a one-on-one meeting at the Bel Air hotel where Cosby had invited her to discuss her future career plans, Kacey claims that he insisted she take a "large white pill" to help her "relax," after which she remembers nothing until she woke up in a bed next to Cosby, who was naked under a bathrobe. Read more here.
Cindra Ladd
The former entertainment executive claims that Cosby assaulted her in 1969. She wrote about her experiences with the comedian in a blog for The Huffington Post. Ladd, who met Cosby in 1969 while she was in New York working for film producer Ray Stark, says that the assault took place at the apartment of a friend of Cosby's. She had stopped by the apartment to meet Cosby before they went to the movies. She says that she had a headache, so Cosby offered her a "miracle cure his doctor had given him." Ladd recalls her memories of that evening in her blog post:
"He went into another room and came back with a capsule. I asked a couple of times what it was. Each time he reassured me, asking, "Don't you trust me?" Of course I did. This was Bill Cosby. For more than 45 years I have tried to recall exactly what happened that night. To this day it remains a blur...What I do recall, vividly and clearly, is waking up the next morning nude in the bed of his friend's apartment and seeing Cosby wearing a white terrycloth bathrobe and acting as if there was nothing unusual. It was obvious to me that he had had sex with me. I was horrified, embarrassed and ashamed." Read more here
Linda Brown
n a Feb. 12 press conference organized by attorney Gloria Allred, former models Linda Brown and made a statement alleging how Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1969. Cosby gave her a ticket to one of his shows, and afterward, Brown went to dinner with the comedian and his entourage. After, he invited her to his apartment. Cosby allegedly poured her a soda to drink while he made the call. The next thing Brown said she remembered was waking up naked in Cosby's bed, unable to move or speak. Then Cosby allegedly raped her. Read more about Brown's story here.
Lise-Lotte Lublin
In the Feb. 12 press conference, Lublin, also a former model, said she met Cosby in 1989. On their third meeting, Cosby allegedly invited her to the Elvis suite of the Las Vegas Hilton to help her with her acting. Lublin said that, in the suite, Cosby fixed her a shot of alcohol, saying that it would help her relax. Lublin, who did not drink at the time, declined the offer, but Cosby insisted. He then allegedly gave her a second drink. Within minutes, Lublin said, she felt dizzy and disoriented. The last thing she said she recalls clearly is sitting on the couch with Cosby stroking her hair. Lublin believes that she was then sexually assaulted. Read more about Lublin's story here.
Heidi Thomas
![<p><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The former model told CNN that, in 1984, she had a glass of wine and awoke to Cosby “forcing himself in [her] mouth." </span><a style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1; font-family: 'Pontano Sans', sans-serif; width: auto; float: none; color: #0088cc; text-decoration: none;" href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/24/us/cosby-accuser-heidi-thomas/index.html" target="_hplink">Read more about Thomas' story here.</a></p>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/qHIhA00OS0.ZfXguGebGoA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/559c57221a0000d2003caf1a.jpg)
The former model told CNN that, in 1984, she had a glass of wine and awoke to Cosby “forcing himself in [her] mouth." Read more about Thomas' story here.
