Another Cosby accuser speaks out (2005)

ON OFFICIAL COURT documents, her name is Jane Doe No. 5. Now she wants everyone to know her real name.

Beth Ferrier.

And she wants everyone to hear her story about Bill Cosby.

About 21 years ago, after she ended a months-long consensual affair with the entertainer, she says he drugged her when she visited him before a performance in Denver.

"He said, 'Here's your favorite coffee, something I made, to relax you,' " said Ferrier, 46, who at the time worked as a model.

In a telephone interview from her Denver home, Ferrier told how she drank the coffee and soon began to feel woozy. The next thing she knew, several hours had passed, and she had no memory of what happened.

"I woke up and I was in the back of my car all alone," she said. "My clothes were a mess. My bra was undone. My top was untucked. And I'm sitting there going, 'Oh my God. Where am I? ' What's going on? I was so out of it. It was just awful. "

Security guards approached her car, saying Cosby had told them to get her home, she said.

After gathering her senses, she said she decided to confront Cosby at his hotel.

"You just had too much to drink," she said he told her.

Ferrier has passed a lie-detector test about her claims.

She is one of 12 anonymous "Jane Doe" witnesses in former Temple University women's basketball executive Andrea Constand's civil lawsuit accusing Cosby of drugging and groping her. A 13th woman, California attorney Tamara Green, has already allowed Constand to use her name in the lawsuit.

Joyce Dale, of Media, Delaware County, an attorney and contact for the Jane Does, and Constand's law-yers, Bebe Kivitz and Dolores Troiani, declined to comment. Two of Cosby's lawyers, Andrew Schau and Patrick O'Connor, also declined to comment.

In legal pleadings responding to Constand's lawsuit, Cosby has denied he drugged or sexually assaulted Constand. Montgomery County authorities investigated Constand's claims but declined to file criminal charges against Cosby.

Both sides were in federal court yesterday arguing whether 10 of the Jane Does should be publicly identi-fied. Jane Doe No. 7's attorney withdrew her request for anonymity, although her actual name was not men-tioned. Jane Doe No. 5 - Ferrier - has never requested anonymity, although her name hasn't been made public.

U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno did not issue a ruling.

Ferrier said she told no one about the night in Denver for years. Then in February, she read in the National Enquirer about Constand's allegation that Cosby drugged and groped her at his Montgomery County man-sion in January 2004.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' It's just like what happened to me," said Ferrier, who has three children and is go-ing through her second divorce. "That explains it. I've not, all these years, had an explanation."

She called the Enquirer trying to reach Constand. She ended up agreeing to tell her story to the supermarket tab for $7,500, so long as she passed a lie-detector test. She did the interview and passed the lie test.

Her story was never published. Instead, the paper published a front-page interview with Cosby in which he said he wouldn't give in to people who were trying to exploit him because of his celebrity.

Stuart Zakim, an Enquirer spokesman, would not say why Ferrier's interview was never published.

Ferrier said she was a girl jock growing up. She played basketball, ran track and swam on the swim team in school. She was raised in the Midwest, then moved to Denver when she was about 14. She didn't make it as a high school cheerleader. She investigated modeling but learned that, at 5-feet-11 and 125 pounds, she was a little too pudgy.

At the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, she pursued a degree in special education. As she fin-ished her studies, she again decided to try modeling.

Ferrier said she signed with Steven Vannoy of Vannoy Talent, then Denver's number-two modeling agency, even though he, too, thought she needed to lose weight.

"Beth was exceptional to work with," Vannoy said through his assistant this week.

In May 1982, just as her first big ad campaign was about to launch and not long after she married her col-lege sweetheart, Ferrier was nearly killed in a car wreck.

By the time she emerged from the hospital, her career had taken off. And she'd lost 40 pounds, thanks to severe facial injuries that caused her to lose most of her teeth.

After a couple of years of working for Vannoy, she signed with Denver's top modeling agent, Jo Farrell. She began splitting her time between Chicago and New York.

Sometime in 1984, Farrell sent her to New York with another woman - a modeling agency booker - and a male model, Ferrier said. They were staying in Farrell's apartment in New York, and Farrell had arranged for them to meet with Cosby at his New York brownstone.

"He was going to help us with our careers," she recalled.

Cosby was a warm and gracious host, she said. They all went out to dinner at a restaurant called Mr. Chow. After they returned to Cosby's home, Cosby served coffee. The other woman became ill, Ferrier said, and the male model took her back to Farrell's apartment.

Ferrier said she stayed with Cosby, who assured her the woman would be OK, then began talking to her about her career and asking her about her father, who had died of cancer.

"He just wanted to know everything about me," she said.

She saw Cosby the following day and they began an affair, she said. Soon, she said she fell in love.

About six months into the relationship, he bought her a plane ticket to New York, and they shared a roman-tic night together, she said. The next morning, he handed her a $100 bill and sent her to the local deli for bagels and cream cheese.

When she returned to his home, laden with bagels, he abruptly told her to pack her bags and move into a nearby hotel, she said. She still has no idea why.

Puzzled and upset, she checked into the hotel, doubting herself for having an extramarital affair.

"What am I doing," she said she thought. "I need to go home. This is not right."

She said she flew back to Chicago without saying goodbye to Cosby.

She said she didn't see him again until a few weeks later, when he called to tell her he was coming to Denver and asked her to see him at the now-defunct nightclub where he was performing. She met him backstage.

That's when he handed her the coffee, which she believes was drugged, she said.

What happened that night has haunted her for 20 years.

"I felt very threatened by him," she said. "He knew everything about me. There wasn't anything to hide about me, but this is a very powerful person that everyone believes, that everyone loves and admires. I did."

"The impact on my life has been monumental," she said. "You can't keep secrets if you're being hurt, if you're being victimized. He made me feel like I'd done something wrong."