2 Women Who Testified Against Bill Cosby Call For Release Of 2005 Transcript
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Two of Bill Cosby's accusers joined a court bid Monday to have his full testimony from a 2005 sexual-battery lawsuit unsealed.
Beth Ferrier and Rebecca Neal say the deposition excerpts released last week mention them but don't paint the whole picture.
Lawyer Gloria Allred, speaking on their behalf at a news conference in Los Angeles, says they want to challenge defense comments that Cosby's accusers have been "discredited."
The women's lawyers filed the papers in Philadelphia, where they were "Jane Does" supporting a former Temple University employee who said Cosby had drugged and molested her.
The newly released excerpts show Cosby acknowledging he got quaaludes in the 1970s to give women before they had sex.
More than two dozen women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct in the past four decades, and many alleged that he drugged and raped them. The 77-year-old comedian, who has never been charged with a crime, has denied some accusations while declining to comment or respond to the others.
Ferrier noted that excerpts released by a judge in Pennsylvania last week referenced her case but include Cosby's denials of her claims. She said it's important that his entire testimony be made public to challenge comments that Cosby's accusers have been discredited.
Cosby and his representatives did not answer a call for comment.
Ferrier said she believes Cosby slipped a drug into her coffee when she visited with him in Denver.
"In the recently released excerpts of his deposition, Bill Cosby admits that he was with me in Denver and that he, quote, 'probably had sex with me,' " Ferrier said at the news conference Monday.
"It is important for the world to know the truth about how Bill Cosby hunted me like a predator," she said. "My refusal of his constant advances fueled his desire and eventual drugging-rape ritual."
Ferrier's lawyer, Joyce L. Collier, said in the motion that "Cosby has made multiple public statements claiming that women who have accused him of sexual assault have been 'discredited' and that the allegations are merely 'innuendo' ... Unsealing the complete deposition transcripts of defendant's deposition will allow plaintiff and other Jane Doe witnesses to defend themselves from defendant's despicable attempts to discredit them."
Neal, another Jane Doe who came forward to support former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in the 2005 lawsuit, filed a separate petition.
She said she was accosted by Cosby in 1986 after she met him while working as a masseuse at a Las Vegas health club where she would frequently give him back rubs.
"The betrayal of trust from this famous celebrity was so traumatic," she said. "I thought who would believe me that Bill Cosby was a serial rapist that used drugs to assault unsuspecting young women?"
Cosby, according to a 2005 motion filed by his lawyer, had testified that he did not remember meeting Neal or recall the incident she described to police. However, he said he knew "of no reason why Ms. Neal would fabricate such a story," according to the defense motion.
"We have to do this. This is not about money," Ferrier said. "This is about ending his ongoing abuse of the media, the system and women."
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