Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label bill cosby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bill cosby. Show all posts

Monday, May 7, 2018

Washington's Kennedy Center rescinds Cosby awards


by Rachel Rubin and Biodun Iginla, France24, Washington DC


    © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File | The Kennedy Center has rescinded two awards it had bestowed on Bill Cosby, shown here at the performance hall for the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2009

    WASHINGTON - 
    The Kennedy Center announced Monday it has scrapped two major awards previously granted to Bill Cosby, after the disgraced comic was found guilty of sexual assault.
    The move comes just days after Cosby was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars. He has also been stripped of various honorary degrees.
    Cosby earned the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2009.
    "The Honors and Mark Twain Prize are given to artists who, through their lifetime of work, have left an indelible impact on American culture," the prestigious performing arts hall said in a statement.
    "As a result of Mr Cosby's recent criminal conviction, the board concluded that his actions have overshadowed the very career accomplishments these distinctions from the Kennedy Center intend to recognize."
    Cosby, once a darling of American television dubbed "America's Dad," has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women.
    A 12-member Pennsylvania jury found the 80-year-old guilty on three counts of sexual assault last month for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia mansion in January 2004.
    The sequestered panel reached a unanimous verdict after 14 hours of deliberations. Cosby's first trial ended last June with a hung jury.
    Cosby is at home on a $1 million bail, pending sentencing. Each count carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in jail.
    His lawyers have vowed to appeal.

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    Saturday, April 28, 2018

    Bill Cosby: From luxury to life behind bars:

    April 28, 2018 22H:21  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
    Bill Cosby, used to the high life as one of America’s biggest stars, will likely see his entourage of aides replaced by an inmate paid pennies to help the legally blind comedian navigate life behind bars after he is sentenced for sexual assault.
    FILE PHOTO: Actor and comedian Bill Cosby exits the Montgomery County Courthouse after a jury convicted him in a sexual assault retrial in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S., April 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
    Cosby, 80, faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in the next three months for drugging and raping Andrea Constand, 45, in 2004 at his sprawling compound outside Philadelphia. He is appealing the verdict, which could potentially delay his imprisonment for months or even years.
    Should he eventually leave the world of private jets and luxury hotel suites, the disgraced star of the 1980s television hit “The Cosby Show” will become probably the best-known celebrity to hear the gates of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections shut behind him, according to a department spokeswoman, Susan McNaughton.
    She said previous and current high-profile inmates have included legislators, ex-police officers and Jerry Sandusky, a former Pennsylvania State University football coach convicted in 2012 of being a serial child molester.
    Another is Mumia Abu-Jamal, a political activist convicted in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
    Incarceration will be a stark change for the comedian, whose net worth was estimated in 2016 by Fortune magazine at $400 million, with $100 million invested in real estate, including homes in New York, Massachusetts and Nevada. He also owned a private jet, artwork and dozens of classic cars.
    Once Cosby arrives behind bars, he will face an “incarceration reception process” to determine his healthcare and psychological treatment needs, his security level, and to which of 22 male prisons he will be sent.
    He will be one of just 83 inmates aged 80 or older, and one of very few who are legally blind, McNaughton said.
    Such prisoners are typically assigned a sighted inmate, who is paid just 19 to 42 cents an hour, to assist them and lead them through the facility.
    “Certainly Mr. Cosby would be fine,” she said. “Of course they (the inmate assistants) are screened, and there is a lot of monitoring and supervision.”
    Like most inmates, Cosby will likely be allowed to receive and send emails, which are also screened for security purposes. Most inmates use prison-approved tablet computers.
    Cosby’s prison assistant might also help sort any fan mail that passes a security screening.
    “No drugs or contraband or influence of escape,” McNaughton said. “If it clears through the mailroom, it’s delivered to the inmate.”
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    Friday, April 27, 2018

    BREAKING AND UPDATE: US judge orders GPS monitoring for house-bound Cosby



    by Biodun Iginla and Tamara Kachelmeier, France24 Entertainment reporters, New York

      © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP | Bill Cosby (C) can travel only within the greater Philadelphia area, and solely for medical treatment or to meet his legal team upon written request

      NEW YORK - 
      Convicted sex offender Bill Cosby was ordered Friday to be fitted with a GPS monitor and undergo a violent sexual predators' assessment, allowed to leave home only for medical treatment or to meet his lawyers.
      Judge Steven O'Neill signed the order, clarifying the terms of the disgraced icon's $1 million bail, one day after a Pennsylvania jury found Cosby guilty on three counts of sexual assault.
      The frail, 80-year-old Cosby -- once beloved as "America's Dad" -- faces a sentence of up to 30 years for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia mansion in January 2004.
      Prosecutors on Thursday demanded his bail be revoked, arguing he was a flight risk -- but an irritated O'Neill refused to "simply lock him up right now."
      The judge confined Cosby to his palatial residence in Cheltenham, the same home where the actor assaulted Constand 14 years ago, and instructed probation officers to fit him with a GPS monitor.
      Cosby can travel only within the greater Philadelphia area, and solely for medical treatment or to meet his legal team upon written request, O'Neill said.
      The disgraced megastar's passport has already been impounded.
      He must also submit to an assessment by a sexual offenders board to determine how much of a danger he poses, before being sentenced by O'Neill in 75 days' time.
      His conviction ends the career of once towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture, the first black actor to grace primetime US television, hitting the big time after growing up as the son of a maid.
      Cosby's lawyers have vowed to appeal.


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