Cosby accuser Eden Tirl speaks out: ‘I didn't wait to come forward’
The former actress says she was pulled off the set during a taping of “The Cosby Show” in 1989 and groped by Cosby in his dressing room. Tirl said she later told two of the show’s staffers what happened, but was ignored.
Three more women came forward this week accusing Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them.
Eden Tirl, a former actress who guest starred as a police officer on “The Cosby Show” in 1989, said she was pulled off the set during a taping of the show and groped by Cosby inside his dressing room.
“Nobody on that set [saw] me leave,” Tirl told Yahoo News anchor Bianna Golodryga in her first interview since going public with her claims. “To go have lunch in Bill’s dressing room long before lunch is called is unheard of in television and film.”
Tirl said she later told two “Cosby Show” staffers what happened, but was ignored.
“I didn’t wait to come forward,” Tirl said. “I said something while I was working on the show, and I wasn’t helped.”
She said Cosby’s fame and iconic status made her reluctant to go public.
“At the time I thought I had experienced the casting couch in the grandest way possible, meaning the titan of NBC,” Tirl, now a teacher, said.
Lawyers for the 78-year-old comedian have long denied such allegations, and he has never been criminally charged.
Tirl is one of more than 40 women to allege they were drugged, sexually assaulted or sexually harassed by Cosby.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents 21 of Cosby’s accusers, joined Tirl for her interview with Golodryga.
Last month, New York magazine published an explosive cover story featuring 35 of Cosby’s accusers, whose stories are remarkably similar.
“There will be more coming forward,” Allred said.
Previous allegations of sexual assault against Cosby — and his reputation as a womanizer — were largely ignored. But last fall, a clip of comedian Hannibal Buress talking about the accusations onstage went viral, igniting the firestorm Cosby had successfully avoided for more than a decade.
“I went online one morning, just to check my email,” Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy Bunny who was allegedly drugged and assaulted by Cosby in 1969, told New York. “The Yahoo page came up, and there was something about Cosby, this thing with Hannibal Buress. And all of a sudden, something just hit me. Anger. Son of a bitch! You know, a woman can be not believed for 30 years. But it takes one man? To make a joke about it? That f—ing pissed me off so bad. Suddenly I’m thinking, Who do I contact?”
The New York magazine cover story came three weeks after the unsealing of the 2005 deposition in which Cosby admitted that he gave Quaaludes to at least one woman he wanted to have sex with — a revelation that was viewed as a damning corroboration by many of his accusers.
Allred challenged Monique Pressley, Cosby’s newly hired attorney, to debate the claims against her client.
“I’m happy to come on Yahoo, I’m happy to go on any other platform to debate her,” Allred said. “Let’s do this in the court of public opinion.”
“While I do appreciate the temptation that may exist, for some, to turn this matter into a public spectacle, lawyers representing clients resolve matters in court, not debates,” Pressley said in a statement.
In December, a lawsuit filed against Cosby by Judy Huth alleged that he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15 years old. Cosby is scheduled to answer questions related to that case in a deposition on Oct. 9.
Tiri said she is shocked that Cosby has evaded the mounting allegations against him.
“There is a real disconnect and something really wrong here,” Tirl said. “I don’t feel like he has answered anything.”
