Cosby prosecutors seek 5-10 years
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to sentence Bill Cosby to five to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman. Cosby’s lawyer argued that the comedian is too old and frail to serve time behind bars.
“What does an 81-year-old man do in prison?” defense attorney Joseph Green asked on Day 1 of the sentencing hearing for the comic, who is legally blind and dependent on others. “How does he fight off the people who are trying to extort him, or walk to the mess hall?”
Green suggested Cosby instead be placed in a detention or rehabilitation facility or be put under something akin to house arrest.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said Cosby is still capable of slipping women drugs and assaulting them. He said the sentence should send a message to others.
“Despite bullying Bill Cosby leaves the courthouse Monday after the first day of his sentencing hearing in Norristown, Pa. tactics, despite PR teams and other folks trying to change the optics, as one lawyer for the defense put it, the bottom line is that nobody’s above the law. Nobody,” he said.
Judge Steven O’Neill is expected to sentence Cosby on Tuesday. The star of the popular TV series “The Cosby Show” could become the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison.
Cosby was convicted in April of violating former Temple University women’s basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
After testifying for several hours at two trials, the first of which ended in a hung jury, Constand spoke in court Monday for just two minutes.
“The jury heard me. Mr. Cosby heard me. Now, all I am asking for is justice as the court sees fit,” said Constand, who submitted a longer victim-impact statement that wasn’t read in court.
The charges carry up to 30 years in prison, although state sentencing guidelines call for one to four years behind bars.
On Monday, Kristen Dudley, a psychologist for the state of Pennsylvania, testified that Cosby has an uncontrollable urge to violate young women and would probably commit another offense if given the chance.
A psychologist for the defense is set to testify Tuesday.
In the years since Constand went to police in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, although none of those claims has led to criminal charges. At least two of those women, Lise-Lotte Lublin and former model Janice Dickinson, were in the courtroom Monday.