LOS ANGELES (CN) - Fashion model and alleged rape victim Janice Dickinson turned up the heat on Bill Cosby on Wednesday, in a defamation complaint in Superior Court.
Dickinson, who calls herself "the world's first supermodel" in the lawsuit, claims that Cosby drugged and raped her "vaginally and anally" in 1982 in Lake Tahoe, "leaving semen on her body."
The complaint, filed by Woodland Hills attorney Lisa Bloom, minces no words: "For four decades, Bill Cosby drugged and raped women," it begins. "Few came forward because of his immense fame, money and power. Those who did had their reputations smeared by his lawyers, publicists and spin doctors, further scaring other victims from speaking out.
"Janice Dickinson, like over three dozen other Cosby victims, recently publicly disclosed that she was drugged and raped by Bill Cosby. In retaliation, Cosby, through an attorney, publicly branded her a liar and called her rape disclosure a lie with the intent and effect of revictimizing her and destroying the professional reputation she's spent decades building."
Dickinson, 60, was a successful model in the 1970s and '80s, appearing on the cover of Vogue three dozen times. She opened her own modeling agency in 2005, has appeared on several "reality" TV shows, and has written three books.
Her story of the alleged rape, in the lawsuit, tracks those of many other allegations against Cosby.
She claims she was on a photo shoot in Indonesia when Cosby called her and offered to fly her to Lake Tahoe to discuss her career. Upon arriving, Cosby took her to dinner and when she told him she was "suffering from menstrual pain ... Cosby offered her a glass of wine and a pill which he represented would help her with her cramps," she says in the lawsuit.
She claims that he offered her this though he knew she had been in a rehab center for addiction "a few months before," and had sent her red roses there.
She took the pill, which "heavily sedated her," and "later that night he sexually assaulted her, penetrating her vaginally and anally, without her consent, and leaving semen on her body," she says in the lawsuit.
Dickinson she told some of her close friends about the assault, but did not tell police "due to fear of retaliation against her and her family by the defendant, who was and is a wealthy, powerful celebrity."
She says she wanted to disclose the assault in her autobiography, "No Lifeguard on Duty," but "Harper Collins's legal department would not permit it," so she Bowdlerized the incident. She says she did so again in a 2006 interview on the Howard Stern show. The closest she came to a full disclosure that day, she says, was to tell Stern: "The guy's a bad guy, let me just say that. He's not a nice guy. He preys on women who've just come out of rehab."
On a TV interview on Nov. 18, 2014, Dickinson says, she became "the most high profile accuser" to say that Cosby had drugged and raped her. She says the comedian then set "Team Cosby" after her, which included his attorney and agent, to accuse her of "an outrageous, defamatory lie."
She seeks punitive damages for defamation, false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
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