With the clock ticking at a snail’s pace for Bill Cosby’s victims, time is rapidly spinning for the famed comedian who will be sentenced Monday September 24, 2018.
I’ve been flooded with calls all week for an opinion on how Cosby will fare should Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill sentence him to prison and take him into custody immediately thereafter.
The typical answer is that prisoners convicted of rape will be assaulted or killed by their fellow inmate at the first opportunity. It’s no secret that inmates hate rapists. Does Cosby fit the profile of the rapist inmates hate the most? He does not is the short answer and I’ll explain why.
Most inmates frown upon rapists who brutally rape women through sheer violence. Their thought process is “since you murdered, tortured, raped or beat a helpless woman or child, let me show you how it feels to be the helpless victim to whom you showed no mercy.”
On January 18, 2018 I said with confidence that Larry Nassar would be assaulted and killed at some point because of his sexual abuse of innocent children. Some so called prison consultants disagreed with me stating “Nassar will be protected because he will be designated to a facility which houses sexual offenders”. Nassar was sentenced on January 24th and violently assaulted by another inmate within six months.
Regardless of what society thinks about inmates being the scum of the earth, prisoners draw the line in the sand and see children the way mainstream society views children which is “pure and innocent”. Inmates are aware of the devastating impact rape and molestation has on children and thoroughly despise anyone who robs them of such. As such, Larry Nassar did not receive sympathy.
I would be hard-pressed to believe that many inmates would classify Cosby as a hardcore rapist. If you polled inmates throughout the country and asked if they ever used alcohol or a substance that would allow them to take advantage of a woman, the number would be staggeringly high. Cosby did just that and has claimed that it was consensual. His victims claim it was non-consensual. Inmates will view Cosby as a pervert, opportunist and serial predator who took advantage of grown women, however not through sheer brutality.
I’ve received over a dozen letters from inmates regarding Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. At least 70 percent view Cosby as a pervert who does what most college students and men in Corporate America do. They agree to go to a movie, dinner, play and afterwards have alcoholic beverages. Most men would hope to have sex. Sometimes the sex is mutual and other times it’s not. Cosby used a drug, not brute force. In theory he rendered his victim helpless but without the violence.
Weinstein is more despised because he lured women into situations and physically subjugated them. Felons and former felons I’ve communicated with view most women in Hollywood as groupies who have accepted the tactics of Cosby, Weinstein and others in a position of power as typical. Most men not in prison that I’ve spoken with believe over 90 percent of women seeking to enter or remain part of the entertainment industry have slept on the quote or unquote “casting couch” and over 50% of men striving to become models, actors and singers have done the same, mostly with men in a position of power and influence.
Inmates simply don’t feel the same way about victims in Hollywood as they do in mainstream society. That may fall in Cosby’s favor when and if he enters prison unless some wants to be prison famous for assaulting or killing him.
Cosby’s sentencing will range from probation, house arrest, or up to 30 years in prison. Montgomery County D.A. Steele is expected to move for immediate incarceration. Cosby’s attorneys will seek bail pending appeal.
Should Cosby be sentenced to the maximum term of 30 years, his security level would increase making his chances of sympathy decrease. Pre-sentencing hearings to determine whether he will be designated a sexually violent predator (SVP) will take two days or less.
It remains open to question what effect Camille Cosby’s public attacks on Judge O’Neill will have during the sentencing phase. If I were Cosby, I’d hope that my wife would not attack my sentencing judge with a barrage of assaults prior to sentencing. Camille has been outspoken calling O’Neill “unethical”, “arrogant” and “corrupt.”
If Cosby is sentenced to less than 24 months he may end up in Eaglesville, PA at Montgomery County Correctional Institution which has recently been under a microscope. Two inmates have died there in 2018. One of a pulmonary embolism and one died of suicide by hanging himself. Both were accused or prosecuted for crimes against children. If the loud noises, smells and horrible things that come with incarceration prove to be too much for someone of Cosby’s age and status, he could be the second suicide within a year.
If Cosby receives a higher sentence, he may spend his time in the same prison, in a different area, designated for higher security inmates. In 2017 six officers were found guilty of beating inmates. They were charged with Aggravated Assault, Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Assault, Simple Assault, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Hindering Apprehension or Prosecution, Official Oppression and Obstructing Administration of Law or Other Governmental Function.
If the former America’s dad is sentenced, his attorneys will be eager to point out that due to his age and infirmity he should be considered a high-profile inmate that should be placed in protective custody due to his notoriety and crime that would make him a target.
Cosby cannot conduct business while in prison. He should have handled his business affairs months ago. At 81 years old, he’s clearly beyond the back nine in his life and can certainly afford any necessary medical, dental and psychological help prior to his sentencing date and would be foolish not to have done so.
Once Cosby’s sentence is handed down, the true value on how sexual assault against women are viewed will lay bare for the world to see. Cosby is likely wishing he will receive the same fate as Shafeeq Sheikh. A former Houston doctor convicted of sexually assaulting a patient while she was tethered to machines and receiving treatment for asthma. On August 20, 2018 he was sentenced to 10 years’ probation instead of prison. Sheikh has lost his medical license and must register as a sex offender. The jury decided the sentence.
Although Cosby has been found guilty in the mainstream, we will soon see what fate the court of prison opinion holds. Stay tuned.