Camille Cosby continues to fight for her husband Bill Cosby in the courtroom and wants the current Pennsylvania judge to remove himself from the comedian’s case.
The 81-year-old Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of felony sexual assault against former Temple University women’s basketball staff member Andrea Constand from 14 years ago and is facing 10 years of prison. Sentencing is set to be handed down by Judge Steven T. O’Neill on Sept. 24. However, Camille and her husband’s legal team are requesting that O’Neill be taken off Bill’s case and claiming he wasn’t given a fair trial.
Bill Cosby and wife Camille Cosby arrive at the Montgomery County Courthouse on June 12, 2017, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/WireImage)
“The public, and Mr. Cosby, were entitled to know about Judge O’Neill’s bias before the judge made these rulings. That this judge would hide his bias and decide that his rival, the former D.A., could not be trusted to give truthful testimony, shows that the judge let his own personal feelings override Mr. Cosby’s right to a fair trial. If a judge would do this in a case as high-profile as this one, then he cannot be trusted to be a fair judge for anyone else either,” Camille said in public statement.
Cosby’s team is claiming Judge O’Neill has had a longstanding quarrel with Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, stemming from a 1999 district attorney race in which O’Neill lost the GOP primary to Castor. The Cosby team claims that during that campaign Castor forced a woman that O’Neill had been romantically involved with a woman to publicly support Castor in the race. The Cosby team says O’Neill was embarrassed by Castor’s political move and has held a grudge since then.
Castor’s testimony was crucial to Bill Cosby’s case because he was the district attorney of Bill’s sexual assault case in 2006. Castor dropped the charges against the comedian back then, saying it was due to lack of evidence, and promised Cosby would never be prosecuted for the 2006 accusation. The Cosby team claims that the O’Neill “refused to believe the sworn testimony” because of his own bias.
The comedian’s attorneys have filed legal documents requesting that Judge O’Neill be tossed from the case and Camille stated that her husband “was not afforded an impartial judge and he did not receive a fair trial.”
“Judge O’Neill must provide a full accounting of his bias against the former D.A., and correct the horrible injustice done to Mr. Cosby and to our system of justice,” said Camille’s statement.
