Bill Cosby arrived at the Montgomery County, Penn. courthouse in a black SUV surrounded by his publicists and attorneys. He left in a prison van, escorted by sheriff\u2019s deputies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His lawyers immediately filed a notice of appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judge Steven T. O\u2019Neill sentenced the fallen comic to as many as 10 years in state prison. Cosby, 81, could be released after serving a minimum of three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have no right to it,\u201d O\u2019Neill told Cosby\u2019s attorney Joe Green, when asked that his client remain free on bail pending appeal. \u201cThis is a serious crime,\u201d said the judge, who earlier had designated Cosby a sexual violent predator which means he\u2019ll have to undergo a lifetime of monthly counseling and report quarterly to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the sexual violent predator designation, Cosby\u2019s name also will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims. Additionally, after having already paid the victim in the case, Andrea Constand, $3.4 million in a civil settlement, the sexually violent predator designation can also be used against him in several defamation lawsuits that are pending against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors had asked for a five- to 10-year sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosby\u2019s spokesman Andrew Wyatt told reporters that the sentence continues the \u201clynching of a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis has been the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cDr. Cosby has been one of the greatest civil rights leaders in the United States for over the last 50 years. He\u2019s also been one of the greatest educators of men and boys over the past 50 years. This wasn\u2019t pointed out in court to the jurors or allowed in because of the racist and sexist mass media was attacking and denouncing Dr. Cosby whenever his lawyers even hinted that racism and sexism was present. All three psychologists that testified against Dr. Cosby were white women who make money off of accusing Black men of being a sexual predator and it\u2019s no accident that Prosecutor Steele worked so closely with anti-Black and anti-Male activist groups who tried to extort $100 million from Dr. Cosby in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wyatt and Cosby\u2019s wife, Camille, also pointed to an NNPA Newswire exclusive story earlier this month that revealed that tapes used to help convict Cosby were doctored. After reading the NNPA Newswire story, Cosby hired a forensic firm in Northern Virginia to review recordings of phone calls with Cosby provided by Constand\u2019s mother. The recordings were used as evidence in both of Cosby\u2019s trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Wyatt and Camille Cosby said the firm found that the recordings were indeed doctored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement from Camille Cosby, read by publicist Ebonee Benson, Cosby\u2019s wife said they also presented the findings to Montgomery County detectives who investigated Bill Cosby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey found that they were unable to authenticate the tapes,\u201d Camille Cosby said in her statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosby said her husband\u2019s legal team would immediately file for relief on the basis that Steele used falsified evidence to win the conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe right to a fair trial is of utmost importance,\u201d Camille Cosby said. \u201cThe prosecutor has the responsibility to protect the innocent \u2026 Gianna Constand surreptitiously and illegally recorded a conversation with my husband, which the former district attorney, Bruce Castor, said was illegal. Steele used illegal recordings in both trials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wyatt called it a persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying Mr. Cosby is Jesus, but we know what this country has done to Black men for centuries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosby was found guilty in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for the drugging and sexual assault of Constand, a former Temple University employee, at his in Montgomery County more than 14 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was the first celebrity to be criminally convicted of sexual abuse since the start of the #MeToo movement, the national movement that has resulted in numerous celebrities and powerful individuals, like former NBC \u201cToday\u201d host Matt Lauer, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, and many others, losing their careers. President Donald Trump has also been accused of sexual misconduct and his Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh is set to face at least one of his accusers when he appears before a Senate committee on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosby, who declined to address the court during sentencing and also didn\u2019t testify during either of his trials, has vowed to continue to fight his conviction. His attorneys as well as many other legal experts have said there are numerous grounds for a higher court to consider overthrowing the verdicts against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among O\u2019Neill\u2019s rulings that Cosby\u2019s team believe are questionable is the contentious relationship the judge has had with former District Attorney Castor, who previously declined to file charges against Cosby because he said Constand wasn\u2019t credible and there wasn\u2019t evidence to support a prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Castor also made an agreement with Cosby in which the actor would waive his Fifth Amendment right and sit for a civil deposition. The then-district attorney agreed that whatever Cosby said in the deposition would be sealed and could never be used to prosecute him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Camille Cosby recently filed a request for a full investigation into O\u2019Neill with the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board at the state\u2019s capitol in Harrisburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn light of Judge O\u2019Neill\u2019s continuing unethical conduct, I have retained a former prosecutor based in Harrisburg, Brian W. Perry, to facilitate my efforts to uncover the truth regarding the longstanding and ongoing feud between Castor and the judge,\u201d Camille Cosby said in a statement last week. \u201cMr. Perry will provide the Judicial Conduct Board with recent written communications from Mr. Castor that contradict the judge\u2019s claim that there is no grudge. For example, an email from Mr. Castor references Judge O\u2019Neill as \u2018A judge with an enormous potential bias (who) did not disclose that possible bias to the lawyers to give them the option to seek a new judge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Bill Cosby was led away in handcuffs on Tuesday, Wyatt said his boss was holding up well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBill Cosby is fine. They prosecuted Jesus, and look what happened to him,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201c(Cosby) believes in God, and he will be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bill Cosby arrived at the Montgomery County, Penn. courthouse in a black SUV surrounded by his publicists and attorneys. He left in a prison van, escorted by sheriff\u2019s deputies. His lawyers immediately filed a notice of appeal. Judge Steven T. O\u2019Neill sentenced the fallen comic to as many as 10 years in state prison. Cosby, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1674,1652,1673],"class_list":["post-2655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-andrew-wyatt","tag-bill-cosby","tag-judge-steven-t-oneill","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2656,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655\/revisions\/2656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}