Attorneys for convicted sex offender Bill Cosby are reportedly filing a motion requesting he be removed from a Pennsylvania prison and placed on house arrest due to the threat of the coronavirus.
According to Page Six, a prison officer has SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County, where Cosby is serving a three-to-ten years sentence after his 2018 sexual assault conviction, has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. Cosby’s attorneys are expected to argue that the prison conditions are a threat to Cosby’s health.
“We believe it is only a matter of time before Mr. Cosby’s prison likely falls victim to the virus, such a confined space is the perfect place for a virus to spread rapidly, it is hazardous to the prison staff and vulnerable inmates,” Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt told Page Six.
“Bill Cosby is no detriment or danger to the community. He can’t go anywhere, he is elderly, he is blind. He can stay under house arrest with an ankle bracelet, as he did before, with his wife taking care of him. Let him do his time at home.”
Cosby is 82 years old. Wyatt added that Cosby has not been tested for the coronavirus because he is not exhibiting any symptoms, but pointed out that he is at a high risk of exposure if the virus continues to spread throughout the correctional facility, where he has close contact with multiple staffers on a daily basis as he is wheeled to medical appointments.
“He’s feeling fine other than being blind and his blood pressure spiking at different times,” Wyatt told the news outlet. ” But our concern is that he is really in a difficult situation.”
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[Feature image: Mark Makela/Pool Photo via AP]
