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Bill Cosby

New Cosby accusers say they were raped

Maria Puente
USA TODAY
Janice Baker Kinney (L), attorney Gloria Allred,  Marcella Tate, and Autumn Burns at press conference April 23 in Los Angeles to accuse Bill Cosby of drugging and raping them decades ago.

Crusading attorney Gloria Allred's crusade against Bill Cosby continues, with the introduction of her latest clients who accuse the comedian of drugging and raping them decades ago.

The number of women who have come forward in recent months to claim they are victims of a predatory Cosby is nearing 40.

Allred, a women's-rights attorney, represents 17, she says, including three more she introduced at a press conference in her Los Angeles office Thursday.

Allred is trying to keep the pressure on Cosby who is continuing his current comedy tour, with a show scheduled for May 2 in Atlanta. "I hope the public will not buy tickets to his performance," she said.

Ever since the allegations against Cosby resurfaced last fall, he has denied all wrongdoing through his lawyers. They did not respond to the latest accusations.

Cosby has not been charged with a crime, and most of the accusations against him could not be prosecuted because the statutes of limitation have expired.

But that has not stopped more accusers from going public, ushered by Allred. Nor has it tamped down criticism of Cosby on social media.

Autumn Burns says she was 20 years old in 1970 and working the gaming tables at a Las Vegas hotel where she met Cosby. After seeing one of his shows, she went to his suite and he gave her a drink. She felt woozy and ended up in the bedroom, where he raped her twice, she says. She didn't tell anyone except her baccarat boss, she said.

Marcella Tate was 27 in 1975 and a model in New York and Chicago, where she met and became friends with Cosby. One day, she picked him up at the airport in Chicago and dropped him off at the Playboy Mansion. He invited her in and bought her a drink. She has no clear memories after that except that she ended up in bed in a "sexual situation" with Cosby.

Bill Cosby in 2009

"I would never have agreed to any sexual contact with Mr. Cosby but because I was barely conscious and felt drugged, I was unable to do anything to get out of it," she said.

Janice Baker Kinney was 24 when she says she was assaulted by Cosby at a house in Reno in 1982. She went there for a pizza party, accepted two pills from Cosby, and passed out. She woke up the next morning naked in bed with Cosby, she says.

When she left, he warned her, "This is between me and you." She replied she had no intention of alerting the media.

"All this time, and for many, many years, I felt this was my fault," she said. "I took the pills from him...I never thought of it as rape....I still felt like I was solely to blame."

Now, she like so many of the recent accusers, are speaking out because they've seen so so many other women speak out against Cosby.

"I was naive thinking that this funny and sweet, trustworthy man would never give something that would harm me," Kinney said. "I was wrong and now I know that Mr. Cosby is a predator and needs to be held accountable for what he did to me."

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