The more than 50 women who have accused disgraced comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault are finally one step closer to vindication.
A jury on Thursday found the veteran entertainer guilty on three felony counts ― including penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious and penetration after administering an intoxicant ― at a retrial in Montgomery County court in Pennsylvania.
Speaking to the press outside the courthouse in Norristown, attorney Gloria Allred, who represents 33 of Cosby’s accusers, denounced the 80-year-old entertainer’s legal team for trying to smear the victims’ reputations after they testified against him.
“You tried. You failed. The personal attacks did not work,” Allred said. “Bill Cosby, three words for you: Guilty, guilty, guilty.”
After the verdict, three of the women who came forward, Victoria Valentina, Caroline Heldman and Lili Bernard, left the courtroom crying, celebrating the judgment with an emotional embrace.
Bill Cosby's accusers embrace after the 80-year-old comedian was found guilty of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault. (Photo: Mark Makela via Getty Images)
Andrea Constand, who accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in the present case, did not speak publicly after the verdict, but she was seen holding friends and family as she exited the courtroom.
“We are vindicated, we are validated and we are now part of the tsunami of women’s power and justice,” Valentino, 73, said during a press conference with other accusers and Allred.
“We are not shutting up and we are not going away,” Valentino added. “Get over it.”
Valentino, a former Playboy playmate, says Cosby raped her in an apartment in the Hollywood Hills in 1969.
Bernard, an actress who said Cosby drugged and raped her while she guest-starred on “The Cosby Show” in the early 1990s, also spoke after the trial, praising the Me Too movement.
“I stand here in the spirit of Martin Luther King, who said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but today it has bent towards justice,” Bernard said. “Today, this jury has shown what the Me Too movement is saying: that women are worthy of being believed.”
She added: “This is a victory not just for Andrea Constand, who I consider to be the Joan of Arc in the war on rape. It is not just a victory for the commonwealth [of Pennsylvania]. ... It is also a victory for womanhood and it is a victory for all sexual assault survivors ― female and male.”
In a statement, Janice Baker-Kinney, a former bartender who said Cosby drugged her after inviting her to a house party in Reno, Nevada, said in a statement that she feels she can now move on from her assault.
The “years of this toxic chain of silence has been broken and we can now move forward with our heads held high as survivors and not victims,” Baker-Kinney wrote.
“This may be the end for Mr. Cosby, but this victory is just the beginning for many of us, to fight for justice, to do the right thing and support every person who has ever been shamed and humiliated and blamed.”
“May this verdict open the floodgates to those who have been hiding their shame for far too long,” she added.
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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 also claimed 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. The Free 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 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 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 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 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 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 Judy Huth The Southern California woman claims that Cosby molested her around 1974 at the Playboy Mansion , when she was just 15 years old. Huth claims that "Cosby forced her to perform a sex act on him with her hand." This is the first time a woman has publicly accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her when she was under the age of 18. The AP reported that she is now suing Cosby for damages. Read more here . Helen Hayes 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 Model Beverly Johnson poses at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, California, January 3, 2015. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT HEADSHOT)
Chloe Goins The 24-year-old model and actress told The Daily Mail that she believes Cosby drugged her drink at a party at the Playboy Mansion in 2008. Goins says that at the time she was 18 years old. She told The Daily Mail that Cosby had brought her a drink, and after having a few sips "everything kind of went a little foggy." She claims that the comedian then led her to a room in the mansion, and when she later came to, Cosby was crouched over her, licking and kissing her feet. She also believes he was licking other parts of her body. "I remember waking up and feeling moist all over, like he had been licking all over me. He wasn't on my breasts when I woke, but I could feel, you know, the saliva on them and that he'd been licking on me," she told The Daily Mail. Read more here. 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 This article originally appeared on HuffPost .
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