Accusers of Bill Cosby asks for maximum sentence to be imposed

Reuters - As a Pennsylvania court prepares to hold a sentencing hearing for comedian Bill Cosby on charges he drugged and sexually assaulted a former friend, two of his accusers on Sunday (September 23) called on the court to impose the maximum sentence and for them to be allowed to testify. Sitting by their high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, Chelan Lasha and Lise-Lotte Lublin are asking the Pennsylvania court to allow them to testify as prior bad act witnesses. Cosby, once the beloved star of the 1980s television comedy "The Cosby Show," faced accusations from dozens of women stretching back decades. After his first trial in mid-2017 for sexually assaulting a former friend, Andrea Constand ended with a hung jury, he was retried and found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison for each of three counts. Constand is one of about 60 women who have accused Cosby of assaulting them, often using drugs to incapacitate them. The accusations go back decades but only Constand's resulted in criminal charges. The other allegations were too old to prosecute. At least 10 women have pending civil claims against Cosby in lawsuits filed in California and Massachusetts, carrying potentially hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in damages for him.