SPRING HILL, Fla. (AP) – When William and Judy Thompson met comedian Bill Cosby in the late 1980s to discuss their teen daughter’s modeling and acting career, they felt immediately at ease.
Cosby and William Thompson both belonged to black fraternities in college. They both had lived in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland area. Both were born in July and both went by Bill as a first name.
Cosby reassured the Thompsons that their then-17-year-old daughter, Jennifer, would be fine living in an apartment with other models as she launched her career. He promised to help the teen, they said.
“We thought we were talking to Dr. Huxtable,” said William Thompson, referring to the comedian’s TV persona in the hit series “The Cosby Show.”
Jennifer Thompson now says she fended off unwanted sexual advances from Cosby and once performed a sex act on the comedian. He then gave her $700. That encounter – their final – clouded Jennifer Thompson’s next two decades.