Lawmakers seeking to extend or abolish the statute of limitations in criminal cases of rape and sexual assault, launched their effort Thursday with an afternoon news conference attended by high-profile civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred and two Colorado women who say they were assaulted by Bill Cosby, the famous comedian now under attack for allegedly drugging and/or sexually assaulting dozens of women over the course of decades.

“What’s important about these stories is that I believe them,” said Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, to a wall of cameras 3 feet from her face. “I’m quite sure they have told their stories several times, over and over and over again. But it has fallen on deaf ears. I’m so proud that in Colorado we are listening.”

Fields, a legislator well-known for taking on high-profile and sometimes controversial bills, is running in an election against fellow Democratic Rep. Su Ryden for Senate District 29, an open seat because of incumbent Sen. Morgan Carroll’s reaching her term limit this year. Fields has introduced two bills on the subject, nationally spotlighted by the Cosby allegations. House Bill 1072 would eliminate the 10-year statute of limitations altogether. House Bill 1260, a fall-back bill should 1072 fail to pass, would double the statute of limitations to 20 years.

Fields said she was proud to have been approached by alleged victims Beth Ferrier of Denver and Heidi Thomas of Castle Rock, who say they were assaulted by Cosby in the 1980s.

“I am a survivor,” said Ferrier. “I was drugged and assaulted by Bill Cosby in 1986 in Denver, Colorado. I wanted to be able to stop being silent. I wanted to advocate for children, people who are disabled, men and women … The shame and the silence of being sexually assaulted needs to no longer happen. I was too fearful in 1986 because of the power of Bill Cosby.”

Ferrier said she has been working with Fields “diligently hand in hand” on the bills since July.

“I felt very alone,” said Thomas, underlining the irony of being caught up in a violent tragedy with a comedian famous at the time for his soft and dopey TV advertising and sitcom characters. “No one would have believed that ‘Mr. Jello Pudding Pop,’ ‘Dr. Huxtable’ was capable of rape and sexual assault. I would have been laughed off the planet.”

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Video: State Rep. Rhonda Fields seeks to abolish or extend the state statute of limitations for sexual assault

Neither of the bills would make it possible to bring Cosby to Colorado to face new charges. The bills, as the speakers put it, are about the future. The speakers encouraged Coloradans who have been assaulted to come forward.

Allred is famous for representing women’s interests in the courts, often in cases involving celebrities, and she has doggedly pursued the Cosby allegations over the last year. There are 58 women now leveling accusations at him and Allred is representing 28 of them.

“The courthouse door should never be slammed shut,” said Allred dressed in a trademark pantsuit, her voice ringing clear above a tangle of microphones.

Allred’s experience and star power may help propel Field’s legislation — in the event they require the extra push. Both bills already enjoy bipartisan support. They’re being sponsored in the House by Fields and in the Senate by Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, a former Weld County sheriff who has quickly become a notable law-and-order legislator.

Allred told The Colorado Statesman that bills introduced in other states that have sought to extend or eliminate statutes of limitation for sexual assault crimes have drawn resistance from the Criminal Defense Bar, which protects the rights of the accused, and from the Catholic Church, which for years has been battered by sexual assault allegations and has paid out a fortune in civil suit settlements. USA Today reported in 2013 that there have been 17,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse going back to the 1950s and that the Church in the United States alone has spent $2.5 billion in court ordered compensation.

Fields told The Statesman that in response to requests made by representatives of the Archdiocese of Denver, she will include an amendment to the bills saying that the extended or eliminated statute of limitations would not apply in civil cases.

— john@coloradostatesman.com