NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s sentencing hearing opened Monday with a debate over whether the 81-year-old comedian should be declared a “sexually violent predator” – a scarlet letter that would make him subject to mandatory lifetime counseling and community notification of his whereabouts.
Cosby, who faces up to 30 years in prison for drugging and molesting a Temple University women’s basketball administrator in 2004, fought the prosecution’s effort to classify him as a predator under state law.
Kristen Dudley, a Pennsylvania state board psychologist, testified that Cosby has an uncontrollable urge to violate young women and would probably commit another offense if given the chance. Dudley added that Cosby’s assault of Andrea Constand fits a long pattern of predatory behavior by the former “Cosby Show” star.
Cosby often befriended women, then betrayed their trust by sedating them with drugs or alcohol and violating them for the “sole purpose of his sexual gratification,” Dudley testified.
The defense argued that Cosby is unlikely to commit another crime because of his advanced age and health – he is legally blind and uses a cane – and because there have been no complaints that he molested anyone in the 14 years since his encounter with Constand.
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