Another woman has emerged accusing Bill Cosby of raping her when she was 19 years old.
The woman, journalist Joan Tashis, told the blog Hollywood Elsewere that Cosby allegedly drugged her and raped her twice. Tashis said she was a young, aspiring writer, who was introduced to Cosby by friends and invited back to his home to work on material with him.
She is one of several women who has accused Cosby of rape.
“I was even more flattered and thought this would help move my writing career along,” she said. Cosby made her a drink and “the next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed,” she said in her published account of the 1969 encounter. “I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one.”
Tashis recounts that her family — not knowing about what allegedly happened — encouraged her to continue seeing him, leading to another alleged drugging and rape.
Related: Lawyer: Bill Cosby won’t ‘dignify’ allegations with comment
Several other woman have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct over the last 30 years. He has never been criminally charged and has consistently denied the allegations. In 2006, he settled a civil lawsuit with one of the women. The allegations resurfaced last month when comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a rapist.
On Sunday, Cosby’s attorney John P. Schmitt addressed the resurfaced accusations for the first time, releasing a statement online saying the 77-year-old star did not plan to comment. “The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true,” he wrote.
“Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?” one of his accusers, Barbara Bowman wrote in The Washington Post last week. “Only when a male comedian called Cosby a rapist did the accusation take hold.”
Bowman’s column — and Cosby’s subsequent cancellation from appearing on “The Late Show With David Letterman” — grew the criticism and prompted Tashis to come forward, she said. “In any event now, as more and more of his rape victims have come forward, all telling similar stories, the time is right to join them,” she said.
Jane Timm