Cosby's lawyer has released a statement reacting to new stories of women claiming to be assaulted by the comedian in the past.
- November 21, 2014
AceShowbiz -
Bill Cosby's lawyer has reacted to the chorus of women claiming to be assaulted by the comedian in the past. On Thursday, November 20, Cosby's lawyer Martin Singer released a statement after two women and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" actress Louisa Moritz came forward with their stories.
As quoted by Variety, Singer said Cosby became a victim of "media-driven feeding frenzy." "People are coming out the wood work with fabricated or unsubstantiated stories about my client," Singer said. "This continued pattern of attacks has entered the realm of the ridiculous."
Bill Cosby faced more sexual assault accusations on Thursday. Carla Ferrigno, the wife of "The Incredible Hulk" actor Lou Ferrigno, said in a new interview with Daily Mail that the comedian tried to sexually assault her in 1967 when she was a teenager. Ferrigno claimed that the attack took place at the actor's home in Los Angeles.
Back then, Ferrigno said she had a dinner with a friend, Cosby and his wife Camille and continued to a movie. Cosby then allegedly suggested they play pool at his home. During the game, Camille retired to her room and Ferrigno's friend left "probably to the bathroom." "And just as I was ready to put the pool cue down he came forward at me. I thought he was reaching for the pool cue. But he came at me and grabbed me in such a powerful way. Grabbing me," Ferrigno said.
"He was much bigger than me. Much bigger and he pulled me so hard and so rough. I had never been treated so roughly and he pulled me hard to him so hard," she recalled. "And then kissed me so hard, right in the mouth. No one has ever been that physically violent with me. I was stunned. I was frozen. I took all my body strength and used both of my arms to stop him and push him away from me. He was so forceful."
"I just ran. I just took off down the hallway, and I saw my friend show up in the hallway, I knew right then, that he knew, he knew why he was bringing me here," she said. Ferrigno didn't tell her husband of the story and only came forward with the experience following recent news about the assault allegations. "To be set up like this really really made me angry! It was just awful. I was listening to what he did to those other women and I feel blessed. So blessed that he didn't do to me what he did to them."
Another woman who comes forward with her story is a Florida nurse named Therese Serignese. Speaking to Huffington Post, Serignese said Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1976 when she was 19. The 58-year-old nurse first met Cosby when she was browsing for jewelry at a gift shop at Las Vegas Hilton. "Somebody came up to me and put their arm around my neck from the back and said: 'Will you marry me?' And I turned around to see who it was, and it was Bill Cosby," she said on the phone.
Serignese recalled he gave her two white pills and water at the green room after his performance. "The next memory I have was I was in a bathroom and I was kind of bending forward and he was behind me having sex with me. I was just there, thinking 'I'm on drugs, I'm drugged.' I felt drugged and I was being raped and it was kind of surreal. My frame of mind was that it would be over soon and I could just get out of there," she was quoted as saying.
Following the incident, Serignese had intermittent contact with Cosby. They had a sexual encounter in 1985 and she received money from him twice in 1996 after a serious car accident, including a $5,000 check from his agent.
"I just tried to forget it. I tried to block it out," said Serignese, who thought that no one would believe her story. "It doesn't go away but you can make it silent. You can bury it. But all of these times when this stuff comes up, it does make me angry."