Bill Cosby’s lawyers want the disgraced comedian released from his prison out of concern over at least one staffer who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Cosby, 82, is serving three to 10 years for sexual assault at SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County, but his legal team is preparing to file a petition at Pennsylvania Superior Court seeking for him to be moved to house arrest.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt told Page Six, “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.
“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.”
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Cosby has a spacious mansion in Elkins Park, Pa., where he lived under house arrest with his wife after being convicted in 2018.
“We are now preparing a motion to ask the court and the state to release Mr. Cosby from prison and place him under house arrest for the duration of his sentence,” said Wyatt.
“We are not doing this because he is Bill Cosby, our concern is that he is 82, he is blind and has close contact with workers who take him to his medical appointments every day in a wheelchair, they take him for his meals and clean his cell. If they get infected, they could pass it on to him.”
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Inmate rights advocates have noted that prisoners, especially elderly inmates, are more susceptible to contracting the virus due to living in close quarters.
“Without immediate action, jails and prisons will be the epicenter of the pandemic,” Nyssa Taylor, policy counsel for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said a few days ago.
