Cosby prosecutor seeks up to 10 years’ jail
A prosecutor has urged the judge in Bill Cosby’s sexual abuse case to sentence the disgraced entertainer to five to 10 years behind bars.
But Cosby’s defence lawyer says incarceration would be an ‘‘excessive hardship’’ for the man once known as America’s Dad.
Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill is poised to impose the sentence sometime today after deciding whether Cosby should be declared a ‘‘sexually violent predator’’.
Cosby, 81, was found guilty in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for molesting Andrea Constand, a former operations manager for the women’s basketball team at Temple University.
He had been facing a maximum of 30 years in prison, but O’Neill announced in court yesterday that the prosecution and the defence had agreed that two of the three counts should be merged into one charge, leaving Cosby exposed to a maximum of 10 years in state prison.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual assault, but Constand’s allegation was the only one that became the subject of a criminal case.
Cosby has denied assaulting Constand and claims their sexual encounter was consensual. He is expected to appeal his conviction. Constand herself spoke just briefly yesterday.
‘‘The jury heard me. Mr Cosby heard me. And now, all I am asking for is justice as the court sees fit,’’ she said.
Constand had testified that the assault took place at Cosby’s home in Montgomery County, just outside of Philadelphia, in early 2004.
She said Cosby gave her three pills she thought were a herbal relaxant and took them because she trusted him.
Then, she said, she became incapacitated and felt his fingers inside of her, but ‘‘couldn’t fight him off.’’
Asking the judge to impose the maximum sentence, District Attorney Kevin Steele said state prison was the appropriate place for Cosby, not house arrest at his suburban Philadelphia home or even in the county jail.
‘‘What they’re asking for is a get-out-of-jail free card,’’ Steele said of the defence.
Steele said the state Department of Corrections has a prison just for older inmates, and that Cosby wouldn’t even be the oldest.
‘‘The bottom line, your honour, is that nobody’s above the law — nobody,’’ said Steele.
Defence lawyer Joseph P. Green said Cosby was legally blind, has no prior record, and could become an extortion victim in prison.
‘‘Incarceration would impose on him excessive hardship,’’ said Green.
The defence lawyer disputed efforts by prosecutors to persuade O’Neill to declare Cosby a sexually violent predator.
Such a designation would subject Cosby to registration as a sex offender and would require that he receive counselling.
‘‘Mr Cosby is not dangerous,’’ said Green.
‘‘Eighty-one-year-old blind men who are not self-sufficient are not dangerous, except to perhaps themselves.’’