Two more women have publicly accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, bringing the total number of the comedian’s alleged victims up to 26. At a Los Angeles press conference called by attorney Gloria Allred, Helen Hayes and a woman known only as “Chelan†told their stories of abuse: Hayes claimed that Cosby stalked her “like a predator†one weekend in 1973, before coming up behind her and grabbing her breast; Chelan said Cosby invited her to his Las Vegas hotel room in 1986, where he gave her a drug he said was an antihistamine, invited a stranger to take pictures of her, then sexually assaulted her.
The pair were joined at the press conference by Beth Ferrier, one of the Jane Doe witnesses in a 2005 lawsuit against Cosby; Ferrier claims the comedian drugged and assaulted her when they dated in the mid ‘80s. Allred challenged Cosby to waive the statute of limitations for the decades-old allegations, so that “in a court of law the victims and Mr. Cosby would have an opportunity to have a judge and jury decide who should be believed.†Failing that, she said, he could donate $100 million to fund settlements for the alleged victims