A former Playboy Bunny claims that she was raped by comedian Bill Cosby and says that she knows of 12 other former bunnies who are too afraid to tell their stories publicly.
P.J. Masten came forward in an interview with CNN, alleging that she was drugged and raped by Cosby in the early 1970s, when she worked at the Playboy Club in Chicago. The alleged incident happened at the Whitehall Hotel. She says Cosby served her a drink, which she accepted.
“The next thing I knew, it was 4 o'clock in the morning,” she told CNN. “I woke up in a bed naked, bruised. He was laying next to me, and I slithered out of the bed... I got myself together, I went downstairs, I got in a cab, and I went home.”
She added, “There were bruise marks all over me... I knew I was raped.”
Masten, who also told her story to the New York Daily News, added that she knows of “12 former bunnies that I know of that are ashamed to come forward, frightened to come forward, married with families (and) don't want to come forward.” She told CNN, “But they were also drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”
Masten isn’t the first woman with Playboy connections to come forward. Judy Huth, the woman who filed a lawsuit on Monday, claimed that she was sexually assaulted a the Playboy mansion in 1974, when she was only 15. Cosby has already requested that this suit be dismissed.
CNN notes that Carla Ferrigno said that she was a Playboy bunny in 1967 when she was allegedly assaulted by Cosby. Another accuser, Victoria Valentino, was also a Playboy bunny when she claims she was assaulted in the late 1960s.
Cosby’s attorney, Martin Singer, has not responded directly to Masten’s claims. However, he has frequently denied the allegations and called others “discredited.”
The Associated Press reports that Masten has claimed that another famous man sexually assaulted her: sportscaster Marv Albert. During his 1997 trial, Masten was a surprise witness and alleged that Albert assaulted her in 1994. She claimed that Albert tried to force her to have oral sex, but she escaped.
In that Albert trial, he agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges. A former lover accused him of attacking her.
During the week, Gloria Allred held a press conference with three other women who claimed they were assaulted by Cosby.
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