LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Three women on Wednesday came together to speak publicly about their allegations that comedian Bill Cosby sexually abused and groped them decades ago, a day after Cosby was sued by a woman who said he molested her when she was a teenager in 1974.
The women, one who says she was 17 at the time of her encounter with Cosby, each sobbed while reading statements at a news conference organized by celebrity attorney Gloria Allred.
Allred proposed that Cosby should waive the statute of limitations that protects him from decades-old allegations from more than a dozen women.
Cosby's attorney has called allegations against Cosby discredited and defamatory and was not immediately available for comment.
A woman who gave her name only as Chelan said that as a 17-year-old working at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1986, Cosby drugged her, gave her alcohol and began to fondle her before she blacked out.
Beth Ferrier, who had come forward with allegations against the 77-year-old Cosby last month, said the comedian gave her a coffee drink that caused her to lose consciousness and she later woke up with her bra undone in the backseat of her car.
Ferrier said she was one of the several "Jane Does" in a 2005 civil lawsuit that made similar accusations against Cosby and was later settled.
Another woman, Helen Hayes, accused Cosby of groping her breast at a restaurant in 1973.
(Corrects slug to PEOPLE-BILLCOSBY)
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Writing by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)