Psychologist says Bill Cosby deserves ‘sexually violent predator’ label
The fight continues for Bill Cosby as his legal team tries desperately to salvage the remnants of what’s left of his character by disputing the “sexually violent predator” label that could be attached to his name.
—Family pays tribute to Botham Jean as he’s laid to rest in native St. Lucia—
But it’s up to Judge Steven T. O’Neill to decide if Cosby will bear the sex offender designation. The prosecution team believes it’s a necessarily evil, arguing that the disgraced TV dad has a mental disorder that prevents him from succumbing to the urges of violating non-consensual women, a prosecution expert said Monday during the comedian’s sentencing trial.
“The behaviors are beyond their controls, so they are urged to act on it. He is likely to reoffend,” Kristen Dudley, a psychologist and a member of the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, testified in state court, CNN reports.
In April, the jury in Cosby’s sexual assault retrial found the comedian guilty of all charges after a two-day deliberation. Each of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault comes with a 5-10-year possible sentence and a $25,000 fine.
During the trial, prosecutors presented a slew of witnesses to convince the jury that the 81-year old Cosby had sexually assaulted dozens of women over the years.
A Pennsylvania board has recommended that Bill Cosby be officially declared as a “sexually violent predator,” a classification that would require the convicted comedian to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and attend monthly sex offender counseling.
Pennsylvania state law defines a sexually violent predator as a person who has “a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sexually violent offenses.”
This is a developing story.
