Bill Cosby Sex Abuse News, Allegations: Three Women Join Nearly 40 Others in Accusing Comedian of Sexual Abuse

Three more women have come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of sexually abusing them decades ago, joining more than three dozen women who have made similar accusations in public over the past year.

Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who represent about 17 of the women accusing Cosby, hosted a press conference on Thursday, April 23, where the three new accusers, Janice Baker Kinney, Marcella Tate and Autumn Burns jointly accused Cosby, 77, of drugging and sexually assaulting them in separate incidents between 1970 and 1982.

Kinney recalled that in May 1982, when she was just 24 years old and working for Harrah's in Reno, she met Cosby with a friend. She said she and her friend visited Cosby's residence, where he gave her some pills. She said she later woke up without any clothes on, in bed with Cosby who instructed her to never share the incident with anyone.

"I was mortified at what had happened," Kinney said. "All this time, and for many, many years, I felt that this was my fault."

Burns said she met Cosby in 1970 at a Las Vegas casino in which she worked when she was 20 years old. She said she was invited to his suite where he made her a drink, after which she felt "woozy and not in control." She said Cosby then forced her into sexual acts.

Tate said she met Cosby in Chicago in 1975, when she was a 27-year-old model. She said he invited her to his Playboy Mansion, where he offered her a drink that left her feeling drugged.

Cosby is best known for his role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable in the top-rated "Cosby Show." He has never been charged over any of the allegations. A 2005 civil suit alleging sexual misconduct was settled out of court.

Representatives for Cosby did not respond to requests for comments on Thursday. His lawyer, Marty Singer, dismissed similar allegations made by other women as "discredited" and "defamatory."

However, the allegations have led to cancellations of a number of stop in Cosby's live "Far From Finished" comedy tour.

Allred confirmed that she held the Thursday press conference just before Cosby's May 2 Atlanta show. "I hope that the public will not buy tickets to his performance and that there will be many empty seats by the end of his performance," Allred said.