Last December, former model Beverly Johnson shocked the world when she came forward and stated that she, as so many other women allege, was drugged by Bill Cosby. Johnson recounted her story in an essay in Vanity Fair.
“Cosby said he wanted to see how I handled various scenes, so he suggested that I pretend to be drunk. (When did a pregnant woman ever appear drunk on The Cosby Show? Probably never, but I went with it.) As I readied myself to be the best drunk I could be, he offered me a cappuccino from the espresso machine,” Johnson wrote. “I told him I didn’t drink coffee that late in the afternoon because it made getting to sleep at night more difficult. He wouldn’t let it go. He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one.”
It was then, Johnson said, that she knew she’d been slipped a drug.
“I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good,” she continued.
Johnson said she fought through the drowsiness and cursed Cosby out. The comedian then threw Johnson out of his house and into a taxi.
Now, almost a year to the date after Johnson came out with her story, Cosby is now suing Johnson for defamation of character.
Cosby’s attorney, Monique Pressley, spoke to ABC News about the lawsuit.
“Mr. Cosby states that he never drugged defendant and her story is a lie,” Pressley told ABC News in a statement. “The suit further states that defendant’s entirely fabricated accusations are nothing more than an opportunistic attempt to resuscitate her own career and benefit herself financially from the wave of media attention surrounding her false allegations against Mr. Cosby, including the use of that attention as a basis to generate interest in, and promote sales of, her recently published memoir, which devotes an entire chapter to the same lies about Mr. Cosby drugging her that she has repeated to every media publication, newspaper, magazine or TV show that will hear her.”
Cosby is suing for compensatory and punitive damages. He also wants Johnson to retract her statement, as well as remove a chapter about the alleged incident from her memoir. In addition, he wants unsold copies of her book removed from circulation.
Johnson is the eighth person this month that Cosby has filed a lawsuit against. In total, close to 50 women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexual assault. One has to wonder if he plans to file lawsuits against the remaining women.