Over the past few weeks, several women have come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of drugging and/or raping them, including Janice Dickinson, who said the actor raped her back in 1982. Now, another high-profile name has come forward to say that she, too fell victim to Cosby.
Beverly Johnson penned a column for Vanity Fair in which she says she was drugged by Cosby in the mid-80s. The model auditioned for a small role on The Cosby Show and attended a few tapings before Cosby asked that she visit him at his New York City home to do a reading for the part. Johnson says she brought her daughter along with her at the time. “Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times. It worked like a charm.”
Her second visit to Cosby’s residence would not be so rosy. She went over and he offered her a sip of coffee from a fancy espresso machine — and would not let her refuse. “I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good,” Johnson says.
My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop. Cosby motioned for me to come over to him as though we were really about to act out the scene. He put his hands around my waist, and I managed to put my hand on his shoulder in order to steady myself. As I felt my body go completely limp, my brain switched into automatic-survival mode. That meant making sure Cosby understood that I knew exactly what was happening at that very moment. ‘You are a motherfucker aren’t you?’ That’s the exact question I yelled at him as he stood there holding me, expecting me to bend to his will. I rapidly called him several more ‘motherfuckers.’ By the fifth, I could tell that I was really pissing him off. At one point he dropped his hands from my waist and just stood there looking at me like I’d lost my mind.”
Knowing that the jig was up, Cosby kicked her out of his house. She said she tried to confront him about it later, but didn’t because she thought it would be in vain. “At a certain moment it became clear that I would be fighting a losing battle with a powerful man so callous he not only drugged me, but he also gave me the number to the bedroom he shared with his wife. How could I fight someone that boldly arrogant and out of touch? In the end, just like the other women, I had too much to lose to go after Bill Cosby.”
This shocking and sad story is just one of many. Johnson was certainly brave to come forward after all these years and though she may not be able to get justice in a court of law, standing up and pulling back the curtain on this man’s alleged actions is a good way to help other women be aware, so that they may not fall victim to the same sort of behavior.
[via Vanity Fair]
