Former Mrs. America accuses Cosby: ‘You’re never going to make it in this business unless you sleep with me’

Three more women came forward Wednesday to claim they were sexual-assault victims of comedian Bill Cosby.

They appeared at a news conference with attorney Gloria Allred at her Los Angeles office. The latest accusations come from a former Mrs. America, a former cocktail server at a jazz club frequented by Cosby, and a woman introduced to him because she wanted him to help her appear in Playboy magazine, Allred said.

More than 40 women have now accused Cosby of sexual assault over several decades. Many of them have told similar harrowing stories of being drugged and waking up partially clothed and sometimes recalling details of being sexually assaulted. Twenty-six of the accusers are represented by Allred.

Cosby lawyers and representatives have denied repeatedly that sexual assaults took place.

“Although it is too late for these three new accusers to take any legal action against Mr. Cosby because of the statute of limitations, these three courageous women want Mr. Cosby to be accountable for what they say was his misconduct towards them,” Allred said.

Pamela Abeyta, a retired chauffeur, said she visited a Cosby producer in Orange County in 1979, hoping to get a job with Playboy. They then flew to Las Vegas to meet Cosby at his show. Abeyta said they stayed in a series of suites, and the next day went to dinner with Cosby after he bought her $2,500 in clothes.

“I don’t remember leaving the dinner show,” she said, speaking through tears. “When I came to, I was lying in Bill Cosby’s bed, not my own room.

“When I came to again, I saw two other naked people in the room by the bed,” she continued. “Bill was sitting on the side of the bed and I blacked out again.”

Abeyta said she woke up the next day in her room and she barely recalls getting to the airport.

“I kept this to myself for so long because I believed it was my fault,” she said.

Sharon Van Ert said she met Cosby in 1976 while working at a jazz club on the Redondo Beach Pier. She said at first he was “pragmatic, funny and very charismatic.” As she left work one night, Cosby offered to walk her to her car, she said.

Van Ert said she had a couple of drinks, and Cosby told her to sit in the car, and he got in too.

“After a while, Mr. Cosby started getting fresh. He was touching me and rubbing my leg. The next thing I remember, I was waking up in my car.... I knew I was drugged because I threw up and I never threw up or drank too much,” she said. “When I got home I realized my panties were missing and I never found them. I believe that Mr. Cosby took them after he assaulted me.”

Shortly after, she said, she told the club owner’s wife and quit.

Former Mrs. America Lisa Christie said she was an 18-year-old model when she met Cosby. He became her mentor and encouraged her to go to college. Nothing happened for two years, until 1989 when they were at a Chicago hotel and he suggested they do an acting exercise, she said. He asked her to kiss him “like a boyfriend,” she said.

She said she pushed him away after declining a drink earlier.

“He raised his voice and said, ‘You owe me,’ and ‘You’re never going to make it in this business unless you sleep with me,’” she said.

“Shame on you Mr. Father Figure of America,” she said.

Cosby, 77, is scheduled to be deposed Oct. 9 by Allred. Judy Huth alleges that in 1974, Cosby sexually assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old visiting the Playboy Mansion.

A police report was taken in the case last year after LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said even allegations beyond the legal time for prosecution would be investigated involving Cosby as they may shine light on newer cases.

The district attorney’s office swiftly declined Huth’s allegation, noting its age.

Huth, however, is seeking to make Cosby pay up in civil court. Cosby also faces several other suits, including a defamation suit by former model Janice Dickinson over statements by his representatives denying her allegation that she was assaulted. Her lawyers too are now seeking to depose Cosby.

Earlier this summer parts of a deposition from more than a decade ago revealed Cosby admitted to using his fame and powerful sedatives in his pursuit of women. The suit was brought by Andrea Constand, a young woman who worked at Temple University as a basketball manager; it was settled in 2006.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles police have the single active criminal investigation into the comedian for allegedly drugging and sexually abusing a model in 2008 at the Playboy Mansion. Chloe Goins alleges Cosby gave her a drink that caused her to black out and awoke to find herself naked on a bed in the mansion with him biting her toes with his pants around his ankles, according to her attorney.

A previous version of this story identified Lisa Christie as a former Miss America. She is a former Mrs. America.