Add CategoryAS Bill Cosby’s defense lawyer tried on Monday to get a psychologist to admit it was unlikely the 81-year-old would strike again, the doctor warned that the convicted sexual assaulter could have already met his next victim.
According to the New York Post, the chilling comment came as lawyers from both sides battled over whether Cosby should be deemed a sexually violent predator for the remainder of his life.
Defense lawyer Joseph Green Jr. tried to argue that his elderly client hadn’t drawn any new accusations since Andrea Constand was drugged and sexually assaulted by her mentor and friend in his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
“Because if it hasn’t happened in the last 14 years, how far forward should we look?” Mr Green asked Dr Kristen F. Dudley, who assessed Cosby prior to Monday’s sentencing. “There’s no reasonable prospect that an 81-year-old blind man would re-offend.”
Mr Green went on to underscore that his “un-sighted” client didn’t exactly have the capability to gallivant around town picking up and drugging women.
“How is he expected to meet people?” Mr Green barked.
“It is possible he has already met someone who could be a future victim,” Dr Dudley replied, prompting Cosby’s present accusers to turn and look at one another in surprise.
“I cannot predict with accuracy when a defendant would re-offend,” she added.
Earlier on Monday, Dr Dudley said the entertainer suffered from a sexual abnormality that caused him to seek out non-consenting sexual partners.
Judge Steven O’Neill has yet to rule on whether or not Cosby will be designated a sexually violent predator, in addition to having to register as a sex offender.
Cosby faces anywhere from zero to 30 years behind bars when sentenced, which cannot occur until Judge O’Neill rules on his predatory status.
Meanwhile, the defense is scrambling to get its witness – another expert who performed an assessment of Cosby – on the stand on Monday or else risk holding up the sentencing proceedings.
“You’ve put the court in a tough spot,” Judge O’Neill chided Cosby’s lawyers.
He said he can’t sentence Cosby without first hearing testimony from experts on both sides to determine whether he’s a predator.
“I’m stuck. I’m going to implore that you call him,” Judge O’Neill said about the defense’s witness, Dr Foley.
They said they’d reach out to the doctor over the lunch break. At worse, he would testify on Tuesday.
It also emerged that only Andrea Constand will address the court ahead of Cosby‘s sentencing for the 2004 sex assault of the former Temple basketball administrator.
It had remained unclear whether or not fellow Cosby accusers Heidi Thomas, Chelan Lasha, Janice Baker Kinney, supermodel Janice Dickinson and Maud Lise-Lotte Lublin would be allowed to make victim impact statements in addition to Ms Constand prior to Cosby’s sentencing, reports the New York Post.
But according to a victim’s advocate with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, the women — who testified alongside Constand at Cosby’s retrial — will not speak at the hearing.
The additional accusers will instead make their statements following Cosby’s sentence, in a separate building, according to the victim’s advocate. She would not say which accusers would be present.