Sick Justice: Bill Cosby Is ‘Hopeful’ After His Sexual Assault Conviction Appeal Is Denied
Dec. 10 2019, Published 4:32 p.m. ET
Bill Cosby remains "hopeful" despite getting shut down by three judges who denied his appeal to overturn his 2018 sexual assault conviction.
Andrew V. Wyatt, spokesman for the convicted criminal, told RadarOnline.com exclusively, "Mr. Cosby remains hopeful and he stands behind his innocence."
The Pennsylvania Superior Court filed their decision on Tuesday, January 10, unanimously rejecting Cosby's legal team's argument that he was denied a fair trial.
The disgraced comedian has been serving a three-to-10-year sentence at a maximum-security facility outside of Philadelphia after he was found guilty last year of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
In their ruling, which upheld the verdict by the lower court, the appellate judges said they disagreed with Cosby's lawyers and found the testimony of other women who said the legendary TV star had drugged and raped them was admissible, and "established Appellant's unique sexual assault playbook."
Presiding Judge John Bender wrote: "Indeed, not only did the PBA (Prior Bad Acts) evidence tend to establish a predictable pattern of criminal sexual behavior unique to Appellant, it simultaneously tended to undermine any claim that Appellant was unaware of or mistaken about Victim's failure to consent to the sexual contact that formed the basis of the aggravated indecent assault charges. Thus, both exceptions applied to the circumstances of this case."
While Cosby's lawyers argued the claims of other women were "too remote in time" and occurred 15 to 22 years before Constand said she was assaulted by Cosby, the justices found that there were still patterns between the prior assaults and the 2004 incident.
"Nevertheless, several factors tend to demonstrate that the probative value of the PBA evidence remains strong, despite that substantial time gap," Judge Bender wrote.
"There are distinctive similarities between the PBA evidence and Appellant's sexual assault of Victim, Furthermore, there were multiple prior sexual assaults, not merely one and all of those prior assaults evidenced the same, signature pattern of misconduct. Had there only been a single prior bad act, it would be easier to write off the similarities as coincidental, especially given the passage of time. However, because the pattern here was well-established in this case, both in terms of frequency and similarity, the at-issue time gap is relatively inconsequential."