Three more women joined attorney Gloria Allred at her Los Angeles offices yesterday in a press conference, alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby. This now makes for a total of more than 40 women who have accused Cosby of similar crimes, reports the LA Times.
Allred represents 26 of the women accusing Cosby of sexual assault. Although the three women who stood with her are not able to take legal action, she said that their testimony is still important to the growing case against Cosby:
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.
One of the three new accusers, Lisa Christie, is a former Miss America. Her explanation of the assault and preceding interactions with Cosby contain many of the same elements of mentorship and psychological manipulation seen in Andrea Constand’s case, which produced the released deposition that illuminated Cosby’s lecherous behavior. At the end of her statement, Christie said, "Shame on you, Mr. Father Figure of America."
The latest accusations coincided with Saturday Night Live veteran Kenan Thompson’s Tuesday appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," where he described a bizzare interaction he had with Cosby on the set of the 2004 "Fat Albert" live-action movie. Apparently, Cosby told Thompson, “When this movie comes out you’re going to need two dicks because the women are going to be all over.” Thompson admitted that the statement, along with other aspects of Cosby’s behavior, look a lot worse in hindsight than they did at the time.