Bill Cosby confronted the beginning of a sentencing listening to Monday (Sept. 24) at which a choose will determine the way to punish the 81-year-old comic who blazed the path for different black entertainers and donated thousands and thousands to black causes however preyed on at the least one younger girl and maybe many extra.
Cosby was the primary movie star to go to trial within the #MeToo period and might be the primary to go to jail — maybe for the remainder of his days — after being convicted in April of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University worker Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia house in 2004. Judges can’t assist being influenced a bit by the “optics” of a case — that it, how it’s going to look to the general public, mentioned Daniel Filler, dean of Drexel University’s Kline School of Law.
In this occasion, “the judge is going to get flak,” he mentioned. “The judge is going to get less flak if they see Bill Cosby walk out in cuffs.” At the top of the possibly two-day listening to, Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill might sentence Cosby to as many as 30 years in jail or ship him house on probation. The state tips for somebody like Cosby, with no prior convictions, name for about one to 4 years behind bars.
“Obviously, the allegations are serious, and, except for his age and poor health, would normally warrant some jail time,” mentioned Samuel Stretton, a veteran protection lawyer not linked to the case. Cosby is legally blind and makes use of a cane, one thing his legal professionals are sure to level out alongside along with his achievements and philanthropy. Prosecutors hoped to name a few of his different accusers to color Cosby as a sexual predator deserving of jail.
Whatever the sentence, Cosby is prone to be deemed a sexually violent predator and should endure month-to-month counseling the remainder of his life, in jail or out. Neighbors and faculties will probably be warned he’s dwelling close by. In the years since Constand first went to police in 2005, greater than 60 ladies have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, although none of these claims have led to prison expenses.
Two of these ladies, Lise-Lotte Lublin and Chelan Lasha, mentioned Sunday (Sept. 23) at a Philadelphia news conference that they need jail for him and hope they get to make influence statements on the sentencing. “I really think it’s important that he spend some time behind bars,” mentioned Lublin, who mentioned Cosby assaulted her when she was 23 in 1989. “At some point, he should acknowledge what he’s done, and do the time for the crime.”
Monday morning, just some hours earlier than the sentencing listening to was to start, Constand tweeted Ephesians 4:26, a Bible verse about letting go of anger: “Be wrathful, but do not sin; do not let the sun set while you are still angry; do not give the Devil an opportunity.” Cosby, who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, grew to become the primary black actor to star in a prime-time TV present, I Spy, in 1965. He remained a Hollywood A-lister for a lot of the subsequent half-century, hitting his peak within the 1980s with the top-rated Cosby Show as the nice and cozy, wisecracking dad, Dr. Cliff Huxtable.
But behind the scenes, in accordance with testimony, the married star sought out sexual encounters with younger ladies, together with actresses he supplied to mentor, fashions looking for a component on his exhibits, and flight attendants he met in his travels. He additionally acknowledged acquiring quaaludes within the 1970s to offer to ladies earlier than intercourse. The Associated Press doesn’t usually establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault until they arrive ahead publicly, which Lublin, Lasha and Constand have performed.
