Harrisburg, United States | Fri, May 28, 2021 | 07:45 pm
Bill Cosby’s plea to be released from a 10-year prison sentence for aggravated indecent assault was denied by the Pennsylvania Parole Board, citing his refusal to engage in a rehabilitation program for sexually aggressive predators.
The decision, which was made on May 11 and first reported on Thursday by Nicole Weisensee Egan, author of the book Chasing Cosby, was confirmed by Laura Treaster, a spokeswoman for the state parole board.
Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Cosby, said his client expected to be rejected. “We had a feeling he’d be turned down. He called me and said he would be denied if he didn’t take the course,” He has maintained his innocence from the outset.”
After serving the three-year minimum length of his sentence, Cosby, now 83, would have been eligible for parole on Sept. 25. On September 25, 2018, he was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in jail and labeled a sexually violent predator after being found guilty earlier in the year of raping Andrea Constand, a former Temple University classmate, in 2004.
The State Correctional Institution at Phoenix, a suburb of Philadelphia, has been housing the once-popular comic known as “America’s Dad.”
Cosby will not be considered for parole again, according to Treaster, unless he completes the sexual violent predator counseling. He must also overcome a state Department of Corrections decision against parole and keep a clean criminal record. Cosby was also advised that he needed to create a “parole release plan.”
She claimed that the reasons for the Corrections Department’s negative recommendation, as well as Cosby’s prison behaviour record, are not public.
Cosby’s appeal of his conviction was heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in December. The court hasn’t made a decision yet, and there’s almost never any advance warning.
Cosby is doing as well as can be anticipated in prison, according to Wyatt.
Wyatt said of the Supreme Court appeal, “He’s hopeful.” “He’s as cool as a cucumber,” says the narrator.