Tiburon's Patricia Leary Steuer is one of the 57 women who have come forward alleging sexual misconduct at the hands of Bill Cosby.
Steuer was at a Starbucks with her husband in Los Angeles Wednesday morning when a close friend from San Francisco sent her a text that Cosby had been charged with aggravated indecent assault on another woman, Andrea Constand.
"About two minutes after hearing the shock of the news I started to cry, which I really never expected to do," Steuer said. "But I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop."
Cosby and his representatives have previously denied all allegations, and the comedian has filed his own defamation suits against some of his accusers.
Steuer said she met Cosby in the late 1970s.
"When I was a recent graduate from the University of Massachusetts with a music degree in voice, I was introduced to him and he discovered that I was a singer," Steuer said of meeting Cosby. "And he offered to mentor me in my career."
Steuer, who was 22 at the time, said Cosby invited her to a dinner party at his home.
"When I arrived we were the only people there and there were two place settings on a coffee table in front of a big fireplace," she said. "He offered me a drink, which he fixed in the other room. I never saw him fix the drink."
The next thing Steuer remembers was Cosby shaking her awake.
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"The next thing I remember is he's waking me up roughly," she said. "I'm sicker than I've ever been in my life. I'm naked and I said 'What happened?' He's standing over me in a bathrobe with a toothbrush, telling me I needed to leave his home."
Steuer said for most of her life she thought she was the only one. But then other women started coming forward.
"It was really helpful to know that I wasn't alone, that I wasn't crazy, that I hadn't made things up in my mind," Steuer said. "That other people had experienced the same thing. It was very validating."
Steuer adds that she never thought Wednesday's news on Cosby would ever come.
"I can't speak for the rest of the women, but I never thought this day would be possible," Steuer said. "So I am grateful for the bravery and courage of Andrea Constand.
