‘They persecuted Jesus, and look what happened’: Bill Cosby’s team say he's victim of a ‘sex war’

Former actor and comedian’s publicist says comedian endured the most ‘racist and sexist trial’ in US history

After Bill Cosby was sentenced to prison, his defence team made fiery accusations of racism and sexism in statements outside the courthouse, framing their client’s downfall as an unjust product of the #MeToo era.

Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, said his client’s defeat was part of the “sex war” happening in Washington, comparing it to accusations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett Kavanaugh that are roiling the capital.

Mr Wyatt added that Cosby, once a beloved actor and comedian, had endured the “most racist and sexist trial” in the country’s history.

Cosby, 81, was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, Andrea Constand, at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004.

Judge Steven O’Neill also ruled that he qualified as a “sexually violent predator” under state law.

Cosby’s lawyers have said they will appeal the case.

In his statement outside the courthouse, Mr Wyatt called Cosby one of the “greatest civil rights leaders” in history and one of the “greatest educators of men and boys,” and accused the mainstream media of waging a smear campaign.

He went so far as to compare his client to Jesus.

“They persecuted Jesus, and look what happened,” he said. “Not saying Mr. Cosby is Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.”

Ebonee Benson, another of Cosby’s publicists, read a statement from Camille Cosby, his wife, who was notably missing from the sentencing hearing.

It accused prosecutors of relying on an audio recording of a 2005 conversation between Bill Cosby and Gianna Constand, the mother of Andrea Constand, which the defence contends was doctored to exclude information that could have exonerated Cosby.

She was referring to an article this month in The Philadelphia Tribune, a newspaper serving the city’s African-American community, which reported that an unnamed official in the Montgomery County Court said that the audio recording was edited to omit information that would have helped Cosby’s case.

In Camille Cosby’s statement, she accused Kevin Steele, the Montgomery County district attorney, of using the “inauthentic” recording in both trials to convince the jury of Bill Cosby’s guilt.

In a news conference after the sentencing hearing, Mr Steele dismissed their claims, saying the motion was “more than a Hail Mary pass” by the defence, but that it was nothing new.

Cosby’s defenders have previously made accusations of racism in responding to the twists and turns of his legal battle.

In May, after he was convicted of sexual assault, Camille Cosby compared her husband to Emmett Till, a black 14-year-old who was lynched in 1955 after being falsely accused of leering at a white woman.

Camille Cosby said in a statement at the time that not all accusers are truthful and that the Till case was emblematic of that.

She also claimed Andrea Constand’s testimony was filled with “innumerable, dishonest contradictions.”

Mr Wyatt, the publicist, alleged that three psychologists who testified in the trial were seeking to “make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators.”

Assessing Bill Cosby’s mental state played a central role in the first day of the sentencing hearings.

Cosby’s defence lawyer, who was pushing for his client to be granted house arrest, argued that his client’s age and legal blindness meant he would pose no risk to others.

But a state psychologist, Kristen Dudley, said that Cosby seemed to have a personality disorder that pushed him towards initiating nonconsensual sex and that she did not believe the disorder had faded with age.

The New York Times