[0:00]It's time for a look back at the allegations of sexual misconduct by Bill Cosby. He's neither been charged with any crimes, nor has he admitted to any. And it's precisely his fame, the women accusing him say, that kept so many of them silent for so long. As we'll be hearing from Tracy Smith. Dear, I brought home two children that may or may not be ours. The old routines may still make us laugh, but more often than not, these days, Bill Cosby makes us cringe. The number of women accusing him of sexual assault seems to grow by the week. And then Bill Cosby starts to yank my skirt off of me, and he has to pull tight because it's zippered in the back. Did you think about going to the police? He was Bill Cosby, so who the heck's going to believe me? Ahead, this Sunday morning, the women confronting Bill Cosby. I am 38 years later finally telling my story. No one would have ever believed me in 1976. Speaking out. The women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault face a long and difficult legal road. He's been criminally charged with nothing, has admitted nothing, and many of the alleged offenses occurred years ago. Still, the accusers say they have stories that must be told. And several of them have been telling their stories to our Tracy Smith. As long as you're living in this house, you are not to do any drugs. When you move into your own house, you are not to do any drugs. At the height of his powers, Bill Cosby really was America's dad. On his galactically successful show, his laughs came with lessons, on morality, responsibility, love. Dear, I brought home two children that may or may not be ours. And that makes what's happening now all the harder to comprehend. They had the misfortune to meet a man that they admired and thought that they could trust, Bill Cosby. An ever-widening circle of women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, more than enough to fill the cover of New York Magazine this past July. The charges have a common thread, Bill Cosby drugged me, kissed me, touched me, raped me. But behind each still photo is a story. Call you every eight minutes. Lili Bernard was a sometime cast member on Cosby's show, which was taped in New York City. Bernard says Cosby, whom she then considered a mentor and father figure, told her to meet him in Atlantic City in 1990. He told me that I had to go to Atlantic City to meet a producer that he wanted to introduce me to, who would further my career. Once there, she says Cosby gave her a drink that made her violently ill, and then helped her to the bathroom, she thought to clean up. So you're still thinking he's this father figure. He's going to wash me, and the next thing I remember, now he's not only pulling off my skirt and my jacket, but he's also taking off my stockings and my shoes. And at, and I must have passed out at this point because the next thing I remember... Sorry. When she woke up naked and groggy in a hotel bathtub, she says she heard Cosby's voice. I remember him saying, are you okay, Bernard? And then I must have passed out again in the tub naked, I'm totally naked. I don't know how I got into the tub, so I imagine he must have either carried me or lifted me or dragged me. I don't know. Did you think about going to the police? Yes, I told Bill Cosby I would call the police. I said I would call the police. And he threatened me that if I called the police, that he, that the minute that I come back from the police, he would go to the police and file a police report against me for false accusation and defamation. And who are they going to believe, Bernard, you or me? What did you think, who are they going to believe? They would never believe me, you know, I mean, he was one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry. He was a philanthropist, and he was a moralist. He was Bill Cosby, so who the heck's going to believe me? It's important to note that Bill Cosby has not been charged with any crime, nor has he or his attorneys admitted any wrongdoing. He did say in a 2005 deposition that he kept Quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with. Now he's being sued by several other women and has another deposition coming up on October 9th. We all know the phrase innocent until proven guilty, does that apply to Bill Cosby? Well, innocent until proven guilty is a legal concept. But for Bill Cosby, he's pretty much been convicted in the court of public opinion, and that's in part because so many women have come forward. And he himself admitted that he gave them the drugs and the story starts to add up that he probably did that because they weren't consenting and therefore he should be held responsible for his acts. But Professor Laurie Levenson of LA's Loyola Law School says that for many Cosby accusers, the clock has run out for any criminal charges. It is certainly possible that Bill Cosby will live out the rest of his life without being criminally charged for any of these offenses. We know he's facing lawsuits and that's something different, but in terms of going to jail, not so likely.
[5:30]And if the allegations are true, Bill Cosby has been assaulting women for decades. Victoria Valentino was Playboy's Miss September 1963 and an aspiring actress who would get the occasional bit part. How soon can you comply? Unit can be airborne within three minutes. But the high point of her life was when her son Tony was born, and the very lowest moment came in 1969 when a week after his sixth birthday, he accidentally drowned in a backyard pool. This, this Saturday, my son would have been 52. He was everything. I breathed for him. So your friend said, let me cheer you up, come meet... What she said was, actually, she said you need a job, you're an actress. Let me introduce you to my buddy Bill Cosby. And while Valentino and her friend were at dinner with Bill Cosby, she says he started passing out pills. So then he reached over because I was not being bubbly, and he put a pill down next to my glass and said, here, take this, you'll feel better. Did it make you feel better? Uh, no. I started feeling like I was going to drop my face in the plate. Valentino says Cosby drove them to a Hollywood apartment where her friend passed out cold. It was then, she says, that Cosby forced himself on her. Did you think about going to the police? It was the 60s. And in those days, rape victims were revictimized. It wasn't compassion and protection of the victim. Oh no, it was well, what were you wearing? So Victoria Valentino kept her mouth shut. And for decades, despite accusations of infidelity and worse, Cosby's secret was pretty much safe. But Cosby became a sort of moral crusader in recent years, scolding young African Americans. Please, stop it. Stop your cursing. Some saw his preaching as the height of hypocrisy. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom. In a standup routine last October, comedian Hannibal Buress openly called Cosby out as a rapist. Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so... The video went viral and inspired a wave of Cosby accusers. Why'd you decide to come forward? Hannibal Buress. I mean, we didn't all conspire, hey, let's meet in 2014 and all get together and nail this guy, you know, and, oh yeah, we'll have the big reunion, you know. I mean, who, who would have thought? It was like one more woman coming out and you're going, oh my God. Oh my God. We reached out to Bill Cosby, his representative told us there would be no statement or comment for this story. But Bill Cosby's legacy has already taken a big hit. His name and image are being removed from places as diverse as Walt Disney World and Atlanta's historically Black Spelman College. I think heroes do die hard in the black community for pretty clear reasons. We haven't had a lot of heroes for a real long time. Columbia University visiting scholar Aubrey Hendricks says that revulsion over the Cosby allegations is pretty universal. There are many who just don't want to believe it, they, they can't believe it, they don't want their hero to, uh, see that their hero has done something like this, but, um, 50 women have accused him of rape. And that's sort of hard to get over and to overlook. And if only one of them is telling the truth, then that means that he is a rapist. He was like an animal that prayed on me. Some of the women are working together now to change statute of limitations laws, if not for them, then for future victims of assault. And that could be Bill Cosby's real legacy. Could it be that Bill Cosby goes to his grave with all of this still going on? I think one of the strategies here is to say to Bill Cosby, you will never have peace for the rest of your life. We will be pursuing you. We may not win at every turn, but we will be there.
