In an interview with the New York Post, Bill Cosby’s spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, said the comedian feels R. Kelly “got railroaded” in his sex trafficking trial in New York.
Kelly, 54, was on Monday convicted by a jury on all nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering after less than two days of deliberations. Kelly had been accused of grooming and sexually abusing women and underage girls. Nine women and two men appeared in court to testify against the singer, claiming that he sexually abused them.
However, Wyatt said Cosby, 84, is of the view the disgraced R&B singer “was screwed” and was ultimately not “going to catch a break” in his highly-publicized trial. Wyatt also said Kelly’s position was untenable.
“The deck was stacked against Robert,” Wyatt said. “His constitutional rights were grossly abused. I don’t know anywhere but in this country in the United States that a documentary can bring criminal charges against someone.”
“No one fought hard for him,” he continued, adding that Kelly’s defense team did not also “humanize him.”
Wyatt also claimed the convicted singer “didn’t have the resources and means”, and “he should have asked for support from the court” as that would have enabled him to get “better representation.”
“This is a guy who made the song ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ when there were rumors about young girls,” Wyatt said. “The song played at every wedding and in every church. He was doing music with Lady Gaga!”
Kelly will face a “mandatory minimum” of 10 years behind bars and could face life in prison for crimes including violating the Mann Act, an anti-sex trafficking law that prohibits taking anyone across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”
And although Kelly was found guilty of the charges filed against him in New York, he faces similar charges in three federal and state cases in Illinois and Minnesota, Face2Face Africa reported.
Cosby, on the other hand, was sentenced in September 2018 to three to 10 years in prison on three counts of aggravated assault for drugging and sexually assaulting former basketball player, Andrea Constand, in his home in 2004. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on June 30 overturned his conviction, paving the way for his eventual release.
The Cosby Show actor had served more than two years of his sentence when the seven-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that he had been denied a fair trial in 2018. The judges said there was a “process violation” because Cosby’s lawyers had made an agreement with a previous state prosecutor that he would not be charged in the case. However, in 2015, a prosecutor filed charges after testimony from a civil lawsuit brought by Constand against the actor was disclosed, BBC reported.
