Bill Cosby Requests New Trial Or Lesser Sentence

NORRISTOWN, PA — Bill Cosby, who has been sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison after being convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, is pleading for leniency.

Cosby's defense lawyers filed a motion in Montgomery County Court this week to hold a new trial or to have his sentence reduced.

It's an unsurprising motion, given the propensity of the Cosby legal team to challenge dozens of rulings, large and small, even since the former comedian's case entered the justice system in 2015.

Cosby, 81, was convicted during his retrial in April of three counts of indecent assault in connection to a 2004 incident in his Cheltenham home involving former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.

He was sentenced on Sept. 25 and has been booked at SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County ever since.

In the new motion, under "reasons for allowing a new trial in the interest of justice," Cosby's lawyers allege that there is proof that Cosby was not even in his Cheltenham home on the dates which prosecutors said the assault occurred.

Perhaps more pertinently, lawyers wrote that because Cosby hasn't been accused of anything recently, he is not a threat to the public, and therefore the sentence is too harsh.

"The sentence was not 'commensurate with...incapacitation to protect the public' from an 81-year-old, blind defendant who had not even been accused of any criminal conduct occurring within the past 10 years."

Judge Steven T. O'Neill said he would respond to the latest motion within the next 10 days.

See more Patch coverage on the Cosby case below:

• Bill Cosby Sentenced To State Prison
• Bill Cosby To Serve Prison Sentence At SCI Phoenix In Montco
• Bill Cosby Hit With Hot Dog Bun On Rough 1st Day In Jail: Report

Photo by Montgomery County Correctional Facility via Getty Images