Bill Cosby Accuser Says TV Dad Earned Her Parents Trust Before Paying $700 for Sexual Act

A woman identified as Jena T. claims Cosby pressured her to give him a handjob in 1989

LAS VEGAS, NV - SEPTEMBER 26: Comedian/actor Bill Cosby performs at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on September 26, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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A former model who testified in the 2005 civil complaint against Bill Cosby over alleged sexual assault says the “Cosby Show” star earned her parents trust before pressuring her to perform a sexual favor for him.

“He promised my parents he’d take care of me,” a 44-year-old Florida woman identified as Jena T. told People.

Jena says she first met Cosby when she was 17 in 1988, and the following year, she alleges Cosby paid her $700 after she gave him a handjob in his home.

Their relationship began after she had hopped on a train from Maryland to New York City without her parents knowledge to pursue a modeling career. After a meeting with an agency, she was taken to the TV studio where Cosby was working, and expecting her. Jena alleges that Cosby called her parents, and advocated that they support her decision to pursue modeling, while promising to personally take care of her.

“Everything he said was reassuring,” Jena’s mother, Judy, said. “There was nothing that made me think we were sending her up there to be alone. New York would have been a definite ‘no’ had it not been for the reassurance of this particular individual.”

Jena says she grew weary of Cosby’s kindness, which included dinner invitations followed by pressure to spend the night at his home.

“He said, ‘Get that magazine, pick an outfit and I’ll get you that outfit. You’ll wear that outfit and we’ll go out to a nice dinner. And then you can come back here,’” Jena recalls. “‘And you can have Amaretto, your favorite, and you’ll be tired so you can just stay here and sleep on the couch.’”

Jena relocated to Washington D.C. in 1989, and sent Cosby a poem, which captured her frustration and discomfort with their relationship.

An excerpt: “Receive a phone call from the Big Man/Who says he has a plan … He is a thief, a hypocrite and a whore/Who only wants more.”

Jena says she finally gave into Cosby’s advances when visiting New York City for “closure.”

Her account begins with Cosby being “very caring” when discussing the poem she had sent him. He suggested she look into mental health treatment, and much like “Picture Pages” co-star Renita Chaney Hill’s accusations, offered to pay for Jena to attend college, and even buy her a car.

Cosby even asked a psychiatrist friend to have lunch with her that day, although Dr. Alvin Poussaint — a former consultant to “The Cosby Show” — says he does not remember the meeting.

“l can’t comment on anything except that I have had fine experiences with [Cosby] and worked with him,” Poussaint said. “He’s always seemed fine in his relationships with people. I don’t know everything of course, but I’ve always found him to be a nice and generous person.”

Despite Cosby’s apparent empathy toward Jena’s situation, she says he used her to a sexual favor later that same day.

“This I’ve pretty much blanked out. He knew on some level that I was probably ready to give in,” Jena said.  “I’m allowing the rubbing. He put his leg between my two legs, but I wasn’t excited. But I knew that that was the point – I had to get him excited.”

“He knew that I was ready to submit. The whole thing was like – I just knew that I gave him a hand job,” Jena continued. “I’m like a robot, and that is what I became, and that is what I did for him.”

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