Cosby accuser aims for criminal charges

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

A former Cosby Show actress who says Bill Cosby drugged and raped her in the early 1990s has gone to the police in New Jersey, a state with no statute of limitation for rape.

Lili Bernard, who made a guest appearance on Cosby's show in its last season and was mentored by the comedian, was one of two new accusers who went public Friday to allege that Cosby drugged and raped them decades ago.

Now she wants him prosecuted for a crime.

Both new accusers were introduced at a New York press conference by Gloria Allred, the women's-rights lawyer who's has become Cosby's main legal adversary, representing 17 of more than 40 women who in recent months have accused Cosby of assaulting them in episodes dating as far back as the 1960s.

Cosby has denied all wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. Most of his accusers say they were assaulted at times and places where the statutes of limitation have expired.

Now Allred has put forward an accuser who hopes to get around that. Allred said she and Bernard went to police in Atlantic City on Thursday, where they spent five hours being interviewed by detectives.

"Unlike most other states, New Jersey has no statue of limitations for rape, which means that law enforcement is not prevented from prosecuting a case because of an arbitrary time period set by law," Allred said.

Barnard did not provide specifics of what happened to her — it wasn't clear, for instance, if what she says happened to her happened in New Jersey.

But she says Cosby drugged and raped her, and during their last encounter in the show's studio in 1992, he threatened her in a way that left her in fear of her life.

She subsequently became suicidal, was hospitalized, went into therapy and still suffers from panic attacks, she said.

"I stand here to take back my power and to confront the fear that has paralyzed me for so many years," she said.

The other accuser is Sammie Mays, a writer who says she met Cosby in 1986 or 1987 while covering a convention in New Orleans that he attended. He agreed to an interview, they went to his hotel room, he fixed her a drink and she lost consciousness. She awoke to find herself half undressed and falling out of a chair.

She now believes she was raped while she was unconscious, but at the time she pretended her "knockout" was her fault. She apologized and fled.

"I never wanted to see Bill Cosby again, or ever talk about him — that is, until all these many years later I learned Bill Cosby preyed upon other women in somewhat the same manner," Mays said.

Allred said she would join protesters in Atlanta on Saturday where Cosby is scheduled to perform in one of the last shows of his current tour. Earlier this week, he released a statement saying he was looking forward to the show.