Bill Cosby Walk of Fame star cleaned
A worker cleans graffiti on actor Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles December 5, 2014. REUTERS/Phil McCarten (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT CRIME LAW) Reuters/ Phil McCarten

A cleaning crew has removed the word “rapist” that had been scrawled over Bill Cosby’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Associated Press reported on Friday. The incident occurred amid growing accusations from more than a dozen women that the comedian had sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Passers-by noticed on Thursday that the word had been written three times over the square of sidewalk at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue, where his name was engraved in 1977.

“When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways then to vandalize a California State landmark,” a spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which awards the stars, said in a statement.

One of the latest accusers is Judy Hauth, who sued Cosby on Tuesday, claiming that he forced her to perform a sexual act at the Playboy Mansion in 1974, when she was 15 years old. On Wednesday, attorney Gloria Allred brought forward two more women making similar claims at a press conference.

Bill Cosby Rape Allegations Gloria Allred
A woman who gave her name only as Chelan (L), Beth Ferrier, (2nd R), Helen Hayes (R) and their attorney Gloria Allred attend a news conference in Los Angeles, California December 3, 2014. Three women on Wednesday came together to speak publicly about their allegations that comedian Bill Cosby sexually abused and groped them decades ago, a day after Cosby was sued by a woman who said he molested her when she was a teenager in 1974 Reuters/Jonathan Alcorn

On Thursday, the U.S. Navy revoked Cosby’s “honorary Chief Petty Officer,” which it awarded him four years ago. It joins a handful of other organizations distancing themselves from the famous comedian, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which recently asked him to step down as honorary co-chairman of the school’s fundraising campaign, according to NBC.

Cosby’s attorneys denied Hauth’s accusation in a recent court filing, writing that her claims were “an outrageous demand for money in order not to take her allegations public.”