Bill Cosby Sex Assault Accuser: 'I Saw No Way Out'
Joan Tarshis said she was 19 when she first met the comedian.
— -- Joan Tarshis is the latest woman to join the firestorm over the Bill Cosby sexual abuse allegations.
She told ABC News today that her friends introduced her to the comedian, then starring in his first sitcom, in 1969 when she was 19 years old and visiting Los Angeles. At the time, she was working as a comedy writer and said she had come up with a bit about a recent earthquake.
“He took a liking to me and I liked him too, he was really funny he was really friendly,” Tarshis said. “We made jokes with each other … and he said, ‘well come up to my cabin, my cottage, after I’m done working and I’d like to work on this with you.’ … I thought, ‘cool,’ ... here’s another credit I can use to write more comedy,’ so I went up.”
That day, Tarshis said Cosby poured her a Bloody Mary and topped it off with beer. Tarshis, who told ABC News she was dealing with a drinking problem at the time and has been in recovery since 1988, says she believes she was drugged.
“The next thing I remember I was on the couch and he was removing my underwear. That’s when I came to,” she said. “And I was just horrified and still kind of out of it, but just disgusted and disappointed and shocked and just really disappointed in him.”
Tarshis claims Cosby assaulted her on two separate occasions. She said she never told anyone.
“I tell no one because I had the victim’s guilt of I should have known better, I shouldn’t have gone up there, I should have known that this was going to happen,” Tarshis said.
"I saw no way out," she continued. "I didn't think anyone would believe me. It's me saying something about Bill Cosby, who is like a god to everyone in the world. He's Mr. Wonderful. He's Mr. Jello, you know."
Tarshis, now 64, has joined a number of other women who have recently come forward and reignited sexual abuse claims against Cosby. She said she is only now speaking out publicly and was inspired to do so by the other stories from women that have come out that she says sound just like hers.
Tarshis said she fears that even now, 45 years later, people won’t believe her story.
“Of course some people won’t believe it,” she said. “There are so many of us that are saying the same thing, we don’t even know each other. But, we’re saying exactly the same MO and if any of the other girls hear this they’re going to be going ‘uh huh, yep, that’s what happened.’”
One of those women is former actress Barbara Bowman. Last week, Bowman wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post alleging that Cosby had drugged and raped her in 1985.
"He was revered by everyone. Nobody would have ever imagined. That's why I had trouble," Bowman said. "Nobody believed me."
In 2006, Cosby settled a civil case with a woman named Andrea Constand who claimed that he had drugged and assaulted her. The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing.
In an NPR interview posted Saturday morning, Cosby would not answer questions.
Instead, his lawyer John P. Schmitt issued a statement Sunday calling the women's claims old and discredited and saying that Cosby "does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
Schmitt said today that he did not intend that statement to "refer in any way" to the settled case, stating their differences “were resolved to the mutual satisfaction of Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand years ago.”
ABC News' Cecilia Vega and Emily Friedman contributed to this report.