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Today could be Bill Cosby’s day of reckoning.
The man once known as “America’s dad” will stand trial beginning this week in Norristown, facing charges of sexual assault in connection with a 2004 incident in which a woman says Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Cheltenham home. And though dozens of woman have come forward saying Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them too, this case — the one taking place this week — is the only criminal case Cosby is facing.
About 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual violence, many of them telling of a similar experience: A drink, a feeling of losing control and an assault. Their allegations date back to the 1960s through five decades of Cosby’s illustrious career as one of the most successful comedians of all time.
Below is a timeline outlining the allegations against Cosby along with some of the actor’s career highlights. Some of the allegations are based on a rough estimate of when the assault occurred.
1960s
1963
Career highlight: First album
Cosby releases his first album, “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow… Right!”
1964
Career highlight: Nominated for a Grammy
Cosby is nominated for a Grammy for Best Comedy Performance for the album “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow… Right!”
Mid-1960s
Accuser: Sunni Welles
Welles came forward with her statement during a news conference in March 2015. She said Cosby drugged and raped her twice in the mid-1960s when she was an aspiring singer.
Welles described the encounters as such:
“We listened to the music as I sipped my Coke and that was when things began to become blurry. I don’t remember leaving the Club; I don’t remember driving anywhere else. What I do remember next was waking up naked in a bed alone in a sparsely furnished apartment. Bill was not there. There was no note. The place had a phone and after finding some lemonade in the small refrigerator, I called a cab to take me home. When I got home I showered and felt as if I had had sex, but I did not want to believe that a family friend would do that to me…
Afterwards though Bill called and offered to take me to the Magic Castle and again I trusted him. He took me there for dinner and to see some magic shows. I remember drinking a Coke and again I awakened in the same room alone and naked. This time I didn’t call him and I never heard from Bill Cosby again after that.”
1965
Accuser: Kristina Ruehli
In 1965, Ruehli was a 22-year-old working as a secretary at a Beverly Hills talent agency when she met Bill Cosby. She said she met up with Cosby at his home where she had two drinks and doesn’t remember much after that. Ruehli said she came to in bed.
“It was all foggy, and I woke up in the bed. I found myself on the bed, and he had his shirt off. He had unzipped his pants. I was just coming to,” she told Philadelphia Magazine in November 2014. “He was attempting to force me into oral sex. He had his hand on my head.”
Career highlight: First Grammy
In April 1965, Cosby won his first Grammy. It was for Best Comedy Performance for the album “I Started Out as a Child.”
Career highlight: ‘I Spy’ debuts
The TV series “I Spy” debuted in September 1965, and Cosby — who played Alexander “Scotty” Scott — became the first black actor to star in an American drama series. The show ran for three seasons, and Cosby won Emmys during each.
1966
Career highlight: Wins first Emmy
Cosby wins his first Emmy (Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series) for his leading role in “I Spy.” He won the same award again in 1967 and 1968.
Career highlight: ‘Wonderfulness’ released
In 1966, Cosby released the album “Wonderfulness,” for which he later won a Grammy for Best Comedy Performance.
1968
Accuser: Carla Ferrigno
In November 2014, Ferrigno — wife of the Incredible Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno — told The Daily Mail that in 1968, said she was a teenager when Cosby tried to sexually assault her. Carla Ferrigno, a former Playboy Bunny, said she went on a double date of sorts with Cosby and his wife Camille. Ferrigno said when Camille left the room as did her date, Cosby attempted to sexually assault her. Here’s how she described the incident to The Daily Mail:
Just as I was ready to put the pool cue down he came forward at me. I thought he was reaching for the pool cue. But he came at me and grabbed me in such a powerful way. Grabbing me. He was much bigger than me. Much bigger and he pulled me so hard and so rough. I had never been treated so roughly and he pulled me hard to him so hard. And then kissed me so hard, right in the mouth. No one has ever been that physically violent with me. I was stunned. I was frozen. I took all my body strength and used both of my arms to stop him and push him away from me. He was so forceful.
Career highlight: ‘The Bill Cosby Show’ debuts
In this two-season comedy TV series, Cosby plays a high school gym teacher in Los Angeles who lives with his mother.
1969
Accuser: Linda Joy Traitz
Traitz, who went public with her story in November 2014, says she first met Cosby when she was working as a waitress in Los Angeles. Here’s how New York Magazine described the incident:
Traitz met Cosby while working as a waitress at Café Figaro in Los Angeles. The comedian offered to drive her home one night, but instead he took her to a beach. They parked and he pulled out a briefcase full of pills. He told her to take one to relax, but Traitz declined. He became angry. He groped her and tried to climb on top of her. Traitz pushed Cosby away, and fended him off…
“I was assaulted, but I wasn’t raped,” she told the magazine. “I blamed myself at the time. I thought I did something wrong. This happened when I was 18. It took me a long, long time to come to terms with the fact that it was him, it wasn’t me.”
Accuser: Cindra Ladd
Former entertainment executive Cindra Ladd says she first met Cosby in the late 1960s, and in 2015, she came forward publicly with her story of how Cosby allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted her. Here’s an excerpt of a piece she wrote for The Huffington Post detailing the alleged assault:
For more than 45 years I have tried to recall exactly what happened that night. To this day it remains a blur. I have a vague recollection of feeling like I was floating while walking through Times Square and watching some kind of Japanese samurai movie with him. I don’t remember where the theater was nor very much of the evening.
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. There was a mirror above the bed, which shocked me further.
Career highlight: Releases ‘It’s true! It’s true!’ (and talks about Spanish Fly)
In this comedy special recorded live at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe in late 1968, Cosby jokes about “Spanish Fly” and slipping pills into women’s drinks. At least five women say Cosby assaulted them the same year this album was released.
Accuser: Linda Brown
Linda Brown, a former Canadian model, said she went on a date with Cosby in Toronto in 1969 when she was 21 years old and, afterwards, he drugged and assaulted her. “I took a sip and blacked out,” she said during a press conference in February 2015. “When I awakened, I was naked in the bed beside him.”
Accuser: Joan Tarshis
Tarshis was a 19-year-old aspiring actress in 1969 when she says Cosby both forced her to perform oral sex on him and also drugged and raped her. “I had no way out,” Tarshis told People Magazine. “He was being really charming and I didn’t want to tell my parents, ‘This guy [sexually assaulted] me. I don’t want to go out with him.’ For some reason, I just couldn’t tell them.”
In an interview with New York Magazine, Tarshis said she was ashamed, and didn’t know what to call the alleged assault.
“The difference between this and somebody else’s rape in the dark alley is that his face would be before me every week on TV,” she said. “Every once in a while, my parents saying, ‘Oh, come here, look and see the Bill Cosby Show, or see The Cosby Show.’ People would mention a joke that he said, Wasn’t that funny? All the while my stomach would just be churning, saying, ‘You don’t know the man.’”
Accuser: Victoria Valentino
Valentino, a former Playboy Bunny, was introduced to Cosby through a mutual friend because she was an aspiring performer and was hoping to work on “I Spy.” Valentino said Cosby sexually assaulted her in late 1969. Here’s how CNN described the alleged encounter:
She went with him to a place where he had memorabilia, she said. She described it as a space in an apartment building that was like an office, with two loveseats and no working phone. It was a “ballers pad,” she said. At some point during the evening, she said, she was feeling “totally out of it” when she saw Cosby attempting to advance on her passed-out friend. She said she began reaching out to Cosby to pull him off her friend when Cosby pushed her down, first pushing himself near her mouth, before turning her around and raping her.
1970s
Sometime in the 1970s
Accuser: Tamara Green
Green came forward with her story in 2005 after Andrea Constand — the woman at the center of criminal charges Cosby faces — filed a lawsuit. Green told The Guardian she took a pill while at dinner with Cosby and when the comedian offered to drive her home, he took her inside, laid her in bed, undressed her and then groped her.
“I made such a struggle, as best I could, but the drugs were so strong,” she told the paper. “I was throwing things around. I tried to throw my table light through the window. I tried to make it as uncomfortable as I possibly could, while he had his way with me, though I wasn’t raped. He assaulted me.”
Accuser: Colleen Hughes
Hughes is a former model and came forward in 2015 saying that, at some point in the 1970s, she met Cosby while working on an American Airlines flight. She says they went to a hotel and, after drinking champagne with him, passed out. Hughes has said she remembers little about what happened after, but she did confront Cosby a year later about the incident. She said Cosby asked her if she ever told anyone, to which she responded she hadn’t.
“You are Bill Cosby,” she remembers telling him. “Who would believe me?”
Accuser: Linda Ridgeway Whitedeer
Ridgeway, a film actress who appeared alongside Charles Bronson in 1972 film “The Mechanic,” also came forward in 2015 and said Cosby sexually assaulted her at some point in the 1970s while interviewing her for a part.
“I felt Cosby’s left hand gently grab my long hair behind my head, his giant frame blocked the door,” she said during a press conference. “His penis was out of his pants and he shoved it into my mouth.”
1970
Accuser: Autumn Burns
Burns was 24 years old and living in Las Vegas in 1970 when she says Cosby sexually assaulted her. Here’s how she describes the encounter:
Mr. Cosby gave me another $500 so I could gamble in the hotel where his show was playing and wait until the show was over to see him. After the show I went up to his suite with him and he made me a drink of scotch on the rocks. I relaxed in the living room and had a cigarette. He told me to take my time and finish my drink while he went into his bedroom. He then called me into the bedroom but I delayed because I was not comfortable going into the bedroom. I started feeling woozy and not in control. When I finally got up and went into the bedroom the first thing I remember thinking is how his naked body looked on the white sheets. He told me to sit on the edge of the bed. When I did he grabbed me by the back of my neck and stuck his erect penis down my throat. I remember my head was being pounded up and down and then he lifted me on top of him and had sex with me.
Career highlight: Performs two shows at MSG that are made into a special
In February 1970, Cosby performed two shows at Madison Square Garden that were made into his “Live” comedy special.
1971
Career highlight: ‘Man and Boy’ debuts
Cosby’s first starring role in a feature film was in the movie “Man and Boy,” a story about a returning war veteran trying to make a living for his family living in Arizona.
Accuser: Louisa Moritz
Moritz said Cosby sexually assaulted her on set of the Tonight Show. Here’s how New York Magazine described the encounter:
Moritz was getting ready to appear on the Tonight Show when someone opened the door of her dressing room. Cosby stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He stood above Moritz and unzipped his pants. He pushed his penis into her mouth. “It was automatic. It was like he did this with everyone that was on a show with him backstage. I couldn’t push him away. He was Mr. Cosby. He moved himself back and forth, and my head was on his penis at all times. Finally, they called my name. I was supposed to be out, but he wouldn’t let me go. He rushed out and came out on my call, and he said, ‘I am Louisa Moritz,’ and got a huge laugh, which was my laugh I was supposed to get. I don’t remember if they introduced me again. I was a zombie. But I sat down and the show went on. I didn’t look at him. He didn’t look at me.
Career highlight: ‘Electric Company’ debuts
Cosby was on the original cast — along with Morgan Freeman — of this comedy variety show/ children’s TV series that ran through 1973.
Career highlight: Releases ‘Bill Cosby talks to kids about drugs’
In 1971, Cosby released an album meant to educate kids about the dangers of using drugs. In it, he tells kids to “say no to pills.” Here’s part of the album:
1972
Career highlight: ‘Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids’ debuts
The animated series that was created, produced and hosted by Cosby debuted in 1972. He voiced a number of characters, including Fat Albert. The show aired through 1985.
1973
Accuser: Helen Hayes
Hayes, who came forward with her story in 2014, said in the summer of 1973, she was attending a a celebrity tennis tournament in California with friends. She said she attempted to avoid Cosby, who was following her around “all day.”
“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,” she said during a press conference. “I was stunned and angry, because he had no right to do that.”
Accuser: Kathy McKee
McKee came forward with her story in 2015, saying that in 1973, she met Cosby in Detroit after performing with Sammy Davis Jr., whom she was dating at the time. McKee, an actress, was familiar with Cosby and had even appeared on “The Bill Cosby Show” in 1971. She said Cosby drugged and raped her at a hotel.
1974
Career highlight: ‘Uptown Saturday Night’ released
Cosby played Wardell Franklin in Uptown Saturday Night, an action and comedy film that debuted in July 1974. It’s about two guys who lose a winning lottery ticket and attempt to find it.
Accuser: Judy Huth
Huth came forward in December 2014, filing a lawsuit against Cosby claiming that he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was just 15 years old. According to People Magazine, Huth has said that Cosby “took her hand in his and performed a sex act on himself without her consent.”
Career highlight: Becomes Jell-O spokesman
This is the year that Cosby became the pudding guy and officially inked a lengthy deal to be the official spokesman for Jell-O. He held the gig for more than 20 years through 1999.
1975
Accuser: Marcella Tate
Tate, a former model, met Cosby at age 27 in New York. She came forward in 2015, and said she believes Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1975. Here’s how she describes the encounter:
In 1975 at age 27 I was a model with Wilhelmina Agency in New York City working in New York and Chicago. There was a group of my friends that frequently met for lunch or in the evening at a Club called Faces in Chicago. I met Bill Cosby through a mutual friend at that club. We saw each other on occasion with friends for lunch or in the evening at Faces. We had no personal relationship. We were just friends through friends…
When we arrived at the Playboy Mansion he asked if I would like to see the mansion and have a glass of wine before I left. I went into the living room and sat down. Mr. Cosby brought me a drink and that was my last clear memory. The next cloudy memory I have is that I was in a different room. I was in a bed. Bill Cosby was next to me and it didn’t appear that he was wearing anything. I knew that I was in a sexual situation. I never intended to be in that situation and would never have agreed to any sexual contact with Mr. Cosby, but because I was barely conscious and felt drugged, I was unable to do anything to get out of it. The next thing I remember is that I stood up and I was holding my head. I said to him “something is wrong with me”. I don’t know how I left or got home, but I do know that I got home.
Accuser: Margie Shapiro
Shapiro said Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her when she was 19 years old and working at a Santa Monica donut shop. She said Cosby came to the window and ordered dozens of donuts for the cast and crew of “Mother, Jugs and Speed,” which was filming close by. Here’s how she describes what happened after Cosby invited her to spend time with him:
Mr. Cosby suggested a game of pinball, asked if I liked it and I said sure since I had played a lot before. So we played a couple games and then he challenged me to a wager that whoever lost the next game would swallow a pill. So I said sure why not since he was still not being malicious or anything. We played pinball and I think he lost one and I know I lost one and maybe 2 games because after I lost the first one I took the pill. The last thing I remember was that we started to play again so I don’t know if I kept playing & lost again or if I passed out & fell down. At some point I didn’t really wake up, but I “came to” a little and the first thing I saw was Bill Cosby’s face not far above me and we were both naked. He was inside me and touching me and I was so grossed out I can’t find the words to express my disgust and mercifully I passed back out again.
“Whenever the Cosby show came on or anytime his face or name popped up, I immediately turned off the television because it instantly made me angry and I would see that damned face of his and the feel of him on me and that has never changed through all these years.”
Career highlight: ‘Let’s Do It Again’ released
In this action/ comedy film, Cosby plays Billy Foster, one of two Atlanta men who are raising money by rigging boxing matches.
1976
Career highlight: ‘Mother, Jugs and Speed’ debuts
Comedy film “Mother, Jugs and Speed” debuts in May 1976. Cosby plays “Mother” in this film about competition between two Los Angeles ambulance companies.
Accuser: Therese Serignese
Serignese came forward in 2014, telling People Magazine that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1976 when she was just 19. She said Cosby offered her a free ticket to his show in Las Vegas, and she was escorted to the green room afterwards for one-on-one time with the comedian. She said Cosby gave her two pills, and things got blurry.
“Then my next memory is being in that vanity room, by that big mirror, and he didn’t have any clothes on, and obviously I didn’t either by that point. I don’t know how they got off. I don’t have that memory,” she told People. “I felt powerless, I didn’t know what to do, and the drugs certainly enhanced that. That’s what I remember – having sex with him, not wanting to be there, not knowing how to get out of there.”
1977
Accuser: Sarita Butterfield
Butterfield, a former model, said Cosby groped her in 1977 at his home in New England. Here’s how New York Magazine described the alleged incident:
Butterfield says Cosby saw her pictures in the magazine and called her up, inviting her to his Massachusetts home for Christmas Eve dinner. He paid for the plane ticket and for the driver waiting for her at the airport. Cosby had many guests over that night, but he cornered Butterfield in his guesthouse. He groped her breasts and tried to kiss her. Butterfield fended him off, but she had to wait until the next morning to take a plane out. She came forward in November 2014.
Career highlight: Inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Following successes like “I Spy” and “Fat Albert,” Cosby was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and got his star placed on the walk. Since allegations of sexual assault arose, the star has been vandalized, at least once with the word “rapist.” But no, it’s not going anywhere.
1978
Accuser: Patricia Leary Steuer
Leary Steuer said when she was 22, she met Cosby at the University of Massachusetts and that he drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home. Here’s how New York Magazine describes the alleged incident:
Then-22-year-old Steuer worked at the University of Massachusetts and met Cosby there after he gave a lecture in 1978. He offered to mentor Steuer as she pursued a singing career. Cosby later invited her to a dinner party at his Massachusetts home. When Steuer got there, the table was set for just two people. Cosby handed Steuer a drink and insisted she perform an improv exercise, pretending she was a queen with oatmeal covering her face. She began to feel woozy. Her next memory is of Cosby standing above her — her clothes off — in a bathrobe. He handed her a toothbrush, telling her she had gotten sick and passed out in his guestroom. Steuer went home, still unsure of what actually happened to her. Cosby kept in touch, arranging for acting lessons and a gym membership for her. He invited Steuer to events, but nothing more occurred until he asked her to join him in Atlantic City. In the evening, she met him in his suite, where he handed her two large pills and a glass of Champagne. The next morning, she woke up naked in one of the rooms of his suite. Steuer joined on as a Jane Doe in the 2005 Andrea Constand lawsuit; she had initially wanted a pseudonym in New York, but when the news broke that Cosby admitted in depositions that he’d given women quaaludes, she sent an email saying that protection wasn’t necessary. “He can no longer claim that we are lying,” she wrote.
1979
Accuser: PJ Masten
Masten worked at a Playboy club in Chicago in the late 1970s when she met Cosby. She came forward in 2014, saying that she met Cosby at a hotel, he offered her a cocktail, and she later woke up with Cosby in his bed; she said she was bruised and naked. She told New York Magazine that the next day he sent her a four-foot ficus tree with this note: “Friendships have to be groomed like this tree.”
“I’ve overcome a lot, but this rape brought me to my knees,” she told New York. “I think the hardest part was that I didn’t have control of myself. I would never have allowed that to happen, never. To do that to — to violate another human being, and violently. I had to go to work the next day. He kept calling and calling, ‘Why did you leave? Why did you leave?’ Are you kidding me? I told my supervisor what he did to me. She said, ‘You do know that’s [Hugh] Hefner’s best friend, right?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She says to me, ‘Nobody’s going to believe you. I suggest you shut your mouth.’”
Accuser: Joyce Emmons
Emmons became friends with Cosby because she managed a comedy club, and she knew the comedian for more than two years when, one night, she and a friend went to a club with Cosby and one of his friends. According to People, Emmons said Cosby gave her a pill and she passed out. When she woke up, she said she was naked in bed with Cosby’s friend.
Accuser: Pamela Abeyta
Abeyta came forward in 2015, alleging that she was 25 when she met Cosby in Las Vegas through Playboy. She said during a press conference that she went to a dinner show with Cosby where she ate and drank — and then she blacked out.
“When I came to, I was lying in Bill Cosby’s bed, not my own room,” she said, according to The New York Daily News. “When I came to again, I saw two other naked people in the room by my bed.”
1980s
Sometime in the 1980s
Accuser: Rebecca Lynn Neal
Neal told New York Magazine that she was working as a massage therapist when she first met Cosby. Here’s how the magazine described what happened after:
He kept asking her to come to his show, and they set a date and planned to have dinner. Cosby had been complaining about his sore back and shoulder, so she agreed to help stretch him out after the show. She went to the show and to dinner — but only Cosby ate. He ordered her a shot of Stoli and told her to drink it, which she did. After that, she felt disoriented and was having trouble walking. Cosby led her from the restaurant back to his dressing room. She sat down and he began pulling down her pants. Then he had sex with her after she told him to stop. “I never saw him again in the health club or anywhere else.” Neal came out publicly in January 2015. “I felt helpless and I couldn’t stop him. He told me to calm down, he wasn’t going to hurt me. And then he started having sex with me, and was talking about how an orgasm is like a thermostat, building pressure. Then it was over. He rushed me out of his room and told me to call him the next time he was in town.”
1981
Accuser: Linda Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick said she met Cosby when she played against him in a tennis tournament in Vegas in 1981. He said if she and her partner won, they would get free tickets to his show. They won, and Kirkpatrick ended up going to the show alone and she was escorted to his dressing room. Here’s what she told New York Magazine:
He handed her a glass filled with a clear liquid and what appeared to be fruit at the bottom; she drank about half of it. Her memory of the rest of the night is a blur, but some moments stuck with her: Cosby on top of her, trying to kiss her; Cosby wearing a silver bracelet with his wife’s name on it. She doesn’t remember how she got home. Cosby called the tennis club to apologize for his behavior, and offered to make it up to her. Kirkpatrick accepted his apology and went to his hotel in promise of receiving a front-row seat to his show. Again, Cosby tried to force himself on her. She pushed him away, and left. She came forward in January 2015. “I didn’t come forward before. I was a coward. I felt, at 25, if I revealed what a big celebrity with a seemingly family-oriented persona had done, that I’d be called a liar, like many of the victims have been. I was afraid and I was embarrassed.”
1982
Accuser: Renita Chaney Hill
Chaney Hill told a CBS station in Pittsburgh in 2014 that she believes Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions during her teenage years. She said they met on set of “Picture Pages” — an educational show of Cosby’s — and he offered to mentor her. She said on several occasions he made her a drink, and she couldn’t remember what happened after.
Accuser: Janice Dickinson
World-famous supermodel Janice Dickinson came forward in 2014, saying that she was raped by Cosby when she was 28. She told New York Magazine that Cosby lured her to Lake Tahoe by saying he had an acting opportunity for her. Here’s the account from New York:
They dined together, and he gave her a pill to take with a glass of wine. The next morning, she woke up and remembered Cosby climbing on top of her. Her clothes were off, and there was semen between her legs. Dickinson came forward in 2014. “I woke up the next morning after the incident with my entire life altered forever, knowing full well that Bill Cosby had raped me the previous evening. I held this inside of my soul for years and years and years. I have been brutally and catastrophically, traumatically altered forever.”
Accuser: Janice Baker-Kinney
Baker-Kinney is a former bartender at Harrah’s, a casino where Cosby performed. A friend invited her to a party at Cosby’s, but when she and her friend arrived, they were the only ones there. She told New York Magazine that Cosby gave her two pills, and then things started getting blurry. New York reports the next thing she remembers is “waking up on a couch, her pants unzipped and her blouse unbuttoned. Her friend had just left, and Cosby stuck his hand inside her shirt. He carried her upstairs. The next morning she woke up to Cosby stroking her stomach. They were both naked. Before she left, he told her, ‘This is between me and you.’”
Baker-Kinney came forward in 2015.
1984
Accuser: Beth Ferrier
Ferrier told New York Magazine that she met Cosby through an agent, and they had a consensual relationship for several months. But after they broke up, Ferrier said Cosby invited her backstage to a show and gave her a cappuccino. The next thing she remembers is waking up with her bra unhooked in Cosby’s car.
“It’s still like a slap in the face until we actually have our day in court and help the others who are getting to go to court, or we get the statute of limitations to change,” she told New York. “It makes me really angry. I can’t feel happiness. I felt very sad and alone. But I’m not afraid of him anymore.”
Accuser: Heidi Thomas
Thomas was 24 when Cosby first offered to mentor her, she told New York Magazine. She met him in Reno at a ranch where he was staying, and gave her a drink. Here’s how New York describes what happened after:
She woke up to find Cosby naked and trying to force her to have oral sex with him. She came forward in February 2015. “My first thought was: How did I get here? What did I say? What did I do? This is so unprofessional and I hope I don’t throw up on his bed because that would be really bad. The next snapshot I have was him telling me we were going to do this again, and I remember getting up and saying something to the effect of ‘This isn’t why I came here.’ It’s such a haze. I now know why I was so foggy. I remember the door when I closed it, it sounded so loud. I thought, “Oh my gosh, I just slammed the door on Bill Cosby.” The idea that I had just been assaulted didn’t even occur to me.
Accuser: Dottye
A woman who goes just by “Dottye” said Cosby drugged and raped her in 1984 inside his home on the Upper East Side. She was an aspiring actress, and said during a press conference in 2015 that she accepted a drink from Cosby inside his home. She said she was soon disoriented, according to The New York Daily News.
“He leaned me against the chest, raised the robe, and raped me,” she said.
Career highlight: Creates and stars in ‘The Cosby Show’
Perhaps Cosby’s most well-known character, Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, was born in 1984 when Cosby created and starred in “The Cosby Show.” For five seasons, it was the most-watched show on TV. The show, based on Cosby’s stand-up, ran until 1992.
Mid-1980s
Accuser: Beverly Johnson
Johnson, a former model, met Cosby through her agent who said the comedian wanted her to audition for a part on “The Cosby Show.” She told New York Magazine that Cosby drugged and assaulted her:
Johnson met Cosby on the set, where he invited her to come over to his house to read for a part. The first time, Johnson brought her young daughter with her. Cosby served them brunch and gave them a tour of the house. Johnson returned a second time, alone. They talked about her career and Cosby led her upstairs, under the pretense that they would rehearse. Cosby had a big espresso machine installed in the room, and he insisted Johnson have a cup. She didn’t want to argue, and took two sips. After the second, she knew she had been drugged. Cosby approached her, and put his hand on her waist. Johnson cursed him and called him out for drugging her. Cosby grabbed her arm and almost dragged her down the stairs, out of the house, and into a cab. “In the end, just like the other women, I had too much to lose to go after Bill Cosby,” Johnson wrote in her initial public testimonial about the incident, in Vanity Fair, in December 2014.
1985
Career highlight: ‘Cosby Show’ wins a Golden Globe
“The Cosby Show” won a Golden Globe for best television series and, the next year, Cosby won for best actor. He was nominated five times in total.
Accuser: Barbara Bowman
Bowman was introduced to Cosby in 1985 when she was a 17-year-old model. She came forward with her story in 2005 when she joined Constand’s lawsuit. Bowman detailed her experience in a Washington Post op-ed in November 2014:
In 2004, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault, her lawyers asked me to testify. Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them. The lawyers said I could testify anonymously as a Jane Doe, but I ardently rejected that idea. My name is not Jane Doe. My name is Barbara Bowman, and I wanted to tell my story in court. In the end, I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, because Cosby settled the suitfor an undisclosed amount of money…
Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times. In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me.
1986
Accuser: Chelan Lasha
Lasha was a 17-year-old high school student and aspiring model working at the Hilton in Las Vegas when she first met Cosby. After a show at the Hilton, Cosby asked Lasha to come to his suite. Here’s what she told New York Magazine happened:
In his room, Cosby handed Lasha a blue pill — he said it was an antihistamine for her cold — and a double shot of Amaretto. Cosby asked her to put on a hotel robe and wet her hair to prepare for the modeling agent’s arrival. Lasha says someone came to the room and snapped a few photos, but quickly left. Alone again with Cosby, Lasha says the comedian led her to the bedroom and gave her another shot of Amaretto. She lay down, and then he climbed in bed beside her. She remembers him humping her leg, grunting. Then she blacked out. She woke up more than 13 hours later. Cosby stood above her and clapped his hands, shouting, “Daddy says wake up.” He handed her $1,500 and told her to buy something nice for herself and for her grandmother.
1987
Accuser: Sammie Mays
Mays told New York Magazine that she first met Cosby in the late 80s when she was a journalist covering a television conference. She asked him for an interview, and she said he wanted to chat on the way back to his hotel room. Mays remembers Cosby served her a drink and then she went blank. When she came to, she told New York Magazine, she was “slouched in the same chair, spit dribbling down her chin. Her bra was askew. Cosby stood above her.”
Accuser: Helen Gumpel
Gumpel told New York Magazine that she met Cosby when she played a small role on an episode of “The Cosby Show.” Here’s what she told New York happened:
She was invited back to the set for what she thought was an audition for another part on the show. Instead, she was sent to Cosby’s dressing room. The comedian opened the door in a bathrobe and offered her a drink. She rejected his advances. She came forward in February 2015. “It was never a secret. I told people. I even told a big columnist, a gossip columnist, but to tell you the truth, at that time, no one wanted to attack Bill Cosby. He was the No. 1 comedian in the world. He was a massive money-maker, and who would believe someone with no power — a woman with no power?”
Career highlight: Creates ‘A Different World’
In 1987, Cosby created “A Different World,” a spinoff TV show featuring his on-screen daughter working to make it through college at an historically black university. The show ran through 1993.
1988
Accuser: Jennifer Kaya Thompson
Thompson told People Magazine that when she was 17 and visiting a modeling agency in New York, she was sent to meet with Cosby for mentorship to help launch her career. That’s when sexual advances begun, she told the magazine, specifically recalling one particular incident: “He put his leg between my two legs, but I wasn’t excited. But I knew that that was the point – I had to get him excited. …The whole thing was like – I just knew that I gave him a hand job.”
1989
Accuser: Lise-Lotte Lublin
Lublin was 23 when she met Cosby through a modeling agency. Here’s what she told New York Magazine happened:
She was alone with him in his Las Vegas suite, she thought, to audition for him. He handed her a shot. She declined at first, but eventually relented. He served her another round. Then the drinks hit her. Her last memory is sitting on an end table, Cosby straddling her and stroking her hair, followed by flashes of unfamiliar areas of the hotel suite. She doesn’t remember how she got home.
Accuser: Eden Tirl
Tirl, a former actress, said Cosby groped her a dressing room on set of The Cosby Show in 1989, according to Yahoo.
Late 1980s
Accuser: Jewel Allison
Allison said she was drugged and sexually assaulted at Cosby’s brownstone in New York City after she met the comedian through her agent. This is how New York Magazine describes what Allison says occurred:
He invited her to his New York City brownstone for dinner, but Allison was the only guest. He offered her a glass of wine. Allison took a few sips. She started to feel sick. She remembers Cosby helping her up, and seeing semen. She became nauseous and ill, and Cosby escorted her to a taxi and sent her home.
Accuser: Lisa Christie
Christie, a former model, says she met Cosby when she was 18 and worked with IMG Models. She said she was brought to “The Cosby Show” when the comedian “lined the models up against the wall to pick the one to whom he wanted to talk.” Christie said they formed a friendship, and more than two years went by “before he tried anything.”
But she said he lured her to a hotel room and tried to kiss her “like a boyfriend.” She said he then told her: “I’ll give you the biggest orgasm you’ve ever had.”
1990s
Early 1990s
Accuser: Lili Bernard
Bernard guest-starred on “The Cosby Show” in the 1990s, and said she saw Cosby as a father figure. Bernard told New York Magazine that Cosby drugged her and raped her. More from the magazine:
During their last contact, on The Cosby Show set in 1992, he told her, “As far as I’m concerned, Bernard, you’re dead. Do you hear me? You’re dead. You don’t exist.” Afterward, she became suicidal. She came forward in May 2015. “For the last 23-plus years I’ve been living with a tremendous sense of fear. Being able to relinquish that fear was freeing for me, and the only reason I was able to do that was so many other women had done it before me, and I felt safe.”
1991
Career highlight: TV Hall of Fame induction
It was in 1991 when Cosby was a member of the eighth class of television professionals to be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Other actors in his class include Andy Griffith and Ted Turner.
1992
Accuser: Angela Leslie
Leslie was an actress when she said Cosby assaulted her in Las Vegas in 1992. She told reporters that Cosby told her to act drunk, then got on top of her. When she resisted, she says, he asked her to leave.
1993
Career highlight: Image Award for ‘Cosby Show’
Cosby wins an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on “The Cosby Show.”
1996
Accuser: Kelly Johnson
Johnson told New York Magazine that she had a professional relationship with Cosby that “became friendlier over time.” Here’s how the magazine describes what happened:
Kacey worked for Cosby’s personal-appearance agent at William Morris. Her professional relationship with the comedian became friendlier over time — he would check in about her life, her family, her future. Cosby eventually approached Kacey to say that he wanted to work with her on a new television show that was in development. He invited Kacey to dinner and insisted she read through a scene that ended in a kiss. They parted awkwardly, but later she agreed to meet him at his bungalow at the Bel Air Hotel for lunch. Cosby opened the door in a robe and slippers. During lunch, he pestered her, saying she needed to relax, and tried to hand her a large white pill. Kacey repeated that she was fine, but Cosby persisted. When she came to, she was in bed, Cosby next to her.
Johnson was the first person to testify in the criminal case against Cosby and the only accuser besides Constand allowed to testify against the entertainer.
Career highlight: ‘Cosby’ launches
Bill Cosby launches “Cosby,” a sitcom about Hilton Lucas (played by Cosby) who was forced by his employer to retire and now has to navigate life at home with his wife. The show ran for four seasons through 2000.
1998
Career highlight: Starts hosting ‘Kids Say the Darnedest Things’
It was in 1998 when Cosby started hosting “Kids Say the Darnedest Things,” a family variety show of sorts in which Cosby highlights the innocence of children. The show ran through 2000.
2000s
2002
Career highlight: Presidential Medal of Freedom
Former President George W. Bush awarded Cosby with the presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Bush said before he bestowed Cosby the award: “Bill Cosby is a gifted comedian who has used the power of laughter to heal wounds and to build bridges.” And no, it won’t be taken away. Former President Barack Obama already addressed that.
2004
Accuser: Andrea Constand
Constand is the woman at the center of the only criminal charges Cosby faces. In 2005, she told police that a year prior in 2004, Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her inside his home in Cheltenham. No criminal charges were filed at the time, however a new Montgomery County district attorney filed charges against Cosby in late 2015 just before the statute of limitations was up. It remains the only criminal case Cosby faces.
Career highlight: ‘Fat Albert’ live action movie debuts
In 2004, Cosby released the “Fat Albert” live action movie starring Kenan Thompson.
Accuser: Donna Barrett
Barrett said during a press conference that Cosby groped her during the Penn Relays in 2004, according to Philadelphia Magazine.
Barrett told reporters Cosby grabbed her from behind. “He had his arm on my waist and forcefully pulled me on to his private area saying, ‘Hey, back that thing up here girl, back it on up,’” she told reporters. “I cried out and tried to pull away from his vice-like grip on my waist.” Barrett said she “felt his private parts” against her backside.
Cosby has been a fixture at Relays for years; there is even a Cosby Show episode revolving around Cosby’s entry into a relay race in the event. He was often the honorary starter for the High School Boys’ Prep School 4×400 meter relay, which is presented in memory of Bill’s son Ennis (who was killed in a robbery attempt in 1997).
Career highlight: Sex 101 at Temple freshman rally
Cosby gives a speech to students at Temple University — where he was once a student — about sex and respecting women. During the speech, he told students: “She can be drunk but when you wake up, you’re going to jail.”
2005
Assault allegations are first made public following a lawsuit filed by Constand. No criminal charges are filed.
2008
Accuser: Chloe Goins
Goins, a model, named Cosby and Hugh Hefner in a lawsuit filed last year. She told police that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008.
2013
Career highlight: Cosby’s back at stand-up
Cosby performs “Far From Finished,” his first stand-up special in 30 years.
2014
Comedian Hannibal Buress brings up past allegations against Cosby during a stand-up routine that goes viral, largely due to an October 2014 Philadelphia Magazine story about the stand-up. After that, dozens of women began coming forward to publicly state that they’d been sexually assaulted by Cosby.
2015
In December 2015, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announced he was filing sexual assault charges against Cosby in connection with the 2004 incident involving Andrea Constand. Charges were filed just days before the statute of limitations expired. Cosby and his attorneys deny the charges.
2017
After a series of hearings, Cosby will stand trial beginning today. The comedian is not expected to testify, and the presiding judge ruled that only one woman who has accused him of sexual assault may testify against him.