More and more women have been coming forward lately, and over the years, accusing iconic comedian Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them. The latest of those women is West Palm Beach resident Therese Serignese, who claims she was assaulted by Cosby after one of his shows in 1976, when she was 19.
Cosby, who is scheduled to perform a sold-out show tonight in Brevard, has been all over the news lately over multiple sexual assault allegations. The allegations had been around for many years, but the story hit the zeitgeist after comedian Hannibal Buress made reference to Cosby being a rapist at a show several weeks ago. He told the stunned audience to Google "Bill Cosby rapist" to back up his claims.
Since then, more and more women have come forward and given terrifying accounts of allegedly being drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby.
Serignese's story seems to fit all the others. It starts with the woman being starstruck with Cosby and ends with him allegedly drugging and assaulting them.
Serignese spoke with WPTV, saying she met Cosby at a Las Vegas gift shop where he turned on the charm and even pretended to propose:
"He asked me, 'Would you like to come see my show?' Of course I would." said Serignese.She said she ended up at an afterparty.
Therese said hours later it was just her and Cosby, and that's when she says he offered her some pills.
She said, "I took them, didn't know what they were, didn't even ask. I just was intimidated, I guess, and I took them. Then my next memory is feeling drugged and him having sex with me."
Therese said she didn't know how she got home but remembers telling her mother the next day.
"She just looked at me and said, 'Maybe he'll take care of you,' " Serignese said.
Cosby let Serignese stay in his personal hotel suite but eventually kicked her out when she told him she might be pregnant. It turned out to be just a scare, and Serignese saw Cosby again on several other occasions.
When she moved to Florida, Serignese found herself in some financial trouble. She remembered a promise Cosby made her if she went to school and got all A's. Cosby sent her $15,000 via Western Union, and she never heard from him again.
In 2005, after hearing about another woman suing Cosby over an alleged sexual assault incident, Serignese decided to go public with her own story. She would be a witness to that case, but it was settled out of court, and Serignese was never able to testify.
Now she's coming forward again, saying she simply wants to tell her story.
"I'm gonna say to Bill Cosby, 'You do owe me an explanation for why you did this to me,'" she said. "'I want an apology. I want you to apologize for hurting me. I want you to apologize for taking advantage of me.'"
With more and more women coming forward -- including actor/body builder Lou Ferrigno's wife -- Cosby has seen a backlash to his once-wholesome image.
A couple of weeks ago, when Cosby asked fans on Twitter to create memes with images provided by his website, fans inundated him with rape allegation memes.
Instead of tweets like this happening:
If you're wondering how @BillCosby's team *thought* #CosbyMeme would go, these are the examples from his website. pic.twitter.com/skq3WC7sBM
— dan barker (@danbarker) November 10, 2014
Tweets like this happened:
Jesus! RT @irathethird: #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/Fv6EluCo6H
— The Notorious T.I.M (@BionicBombshell) November 10, 2014
Oh man, these are making my day! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/nWwhFEDEhD
— Cornhole West (@Floyd_Banks) November 10, 2014
I could do this all day. #CosbyMeme #cosbyproblems pic.twitter.com/A8hXSXeh6D
— sideshowRaheem (@sideshowRaheem) November 10, 2014
The tweet asking for memes was eventually deleted.
And just this week, Netflix and NBC canceled upcoming Cosby projects.
Following the flood of allegations and media coverage, Cosby's attorney sent out a news release this week.
"Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced," the release reads. "The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
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