The legendary supermodel Beverly Johnson, 62, has leveled an explosive set of charges at 77-year-old comedian Bill Cosby, 77, saying he slipped her a powerful drug in the mid-1980s and assaulted her when she was a vulnerable, divorced single mother, auditioning to land a part on his show.
The shocking details — the latest in a series of charges by women who say Cosby drugged them for the purposes of sexual assault — are in an essay Johnson penned for the new Vanity Fair, “Bill Cosby Drugged Me. This is My Story.”
After Johnson declined to have a cappuccino from his (then, unusual) home cappuccino machine, Cosby insisted she have one, she recounted “I took a few sips” to appease him. Then,”my head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop.” While her body had gone limp, she cursed him repeatedly as he touched her, she recounted, which angered him, and he yanked her down a flight of stairs. “I feared my neck was going to break with the force he was using,” writes Johnson, who added that she was “confused and devastated by the idea that someone I admired so much had tried to take advantage of me, and used drugs to do so.”
When she called later to confront Cosby about his behavior, she said, Cosby’s wife, Camille “very politely” informed her that they were in bed together and she was calling too late.
Johnson’s charges join those of almost two dozen women accusing Cosby of sexual assault and/or having drugged them. Cosby has not been criminally charged in any of the cases. At least three women are suing him, and the lawyer for one alleged victim, Tamara Green, announcing a defamation suit this week on the premise the Cosby team defamed her by accusing her of lying.
Cosby’s lawyer and publicist did not respond to a request for comment. His lawyer, Marty Singer, issued a statement to the press earlier this week after Lou Ferrigno’s wife, Carla, said he “forcefully” kissed her in 1967 while she was a guest at his home. “This continued pattern of attacks on Mr. Cosby has entered the realm of the ridiculous,” Singer said.
