What You Need to Know About the Bill Cosby Sex Assault Allegations

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Bill Cosby’s lawyer this weekend provided the only statement he said the comedian or anyone on his team is going to make about any past allegations of sexual assault.

John P. Schmitt, Cosby’s lawyer, Sunday posted a notice to the famed comedian’s website, saying Cosby, 77, would not be addressing “decade-old, discredited allegations,” even though some women have recently come forward for the first time publicly.

“The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true,” Schmitt added. “There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives.”

Cosby, who has never been criminally charged in connection with the allegations and has repeatedly denied them in the past, was first publicly accused of assault 10 years ago in 2004. Here is a quick rundown of what has happened since then.

The initial accusations came to light after Andrea Constand — a former Temple University employee, the Philadelphia school from which Cosby graduated — said the comedian drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2004, People magazine reported in 2006.

Soon after Constand’s allegation, 13 other women stepped forward anonymously as witnesses with similar claims in support of Constand, People reported. Authorities in Pennsylvania did not charge Cosby because of “insufficient credible and admissible evidence,” the magazine reported, but the actor settled out of court in a civil claim with Constand for an undisclosed amount in 2006. There was no admission of guilt.

Around the same time, Barbara Bowman was asked to come forward and testify against the comedian, according to an op-ed she wrote in the Washington Post last week. After he wasn’t charged, however, Bowman said she moved on with her life, even though she never told her story in an official setting. Now, with the allegations resurfacing, she is speaking publicly.

“Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them,” Barbara Bowman wrote in her op-ed for the Washington Post. Bowman added that the alleged incident happened in 1985 when she was a 17-year-old actress.

“[He] brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times,” she wrote. “I have never received any money from Bill Cosby and have not asked for it,” she continued in her piece, adding that the statute of limitations for any of her allegations has run out.

Bowman spoke to ABC News Monday and explained how even a lawyer didn’t take her claims seriously when she brought them up in the past.

“When I went [to] the lawyer’s office he laughed at me, he treated me as if I was delusional,” she said. “Who’s going to believe that? Bill Cosby? Dr. Huxtable?”

Another accuser stepping forward is Joan Tarshis..

She told ABC News on Monday 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.

“All of a sudden, I’m feeling very drugged,” she, now 64, said. “The next thing I remember is waking up in bed, naked next to him the next morning, next to Cosby.”

Tarshis said it happened twice. She said she never told anyone.

“I saw no way out,” she said. “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.”

Efforts for further comment from Cosby’s lawyer or rep were not immediately returned to ABC News.

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