Bill Cosby is mentally preparing himself for prison

close

Video

Bill Cosby's attorneys vow to appeal guilty conviction

The eighty-year-old actor and comic legend is now facing up to 30-years in prison; Bryan Llenas reports from Norristown, Pennsylvania.

His attorneys might still be squawking about innocence and appeals, but Bill Cosby is mentally preparing himself for prison.

“This is what they wanted,” the comedian once revered as “America’s Dad” told Page Six after a Pennsylvania jury found him guilty Thursday of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.

When he arrived at his suburban Philadelphia home after court, he was greeted at the door by another “victim” — his wife and most loyal supporter, Camille. She gave him a hug and a kiss, said a source who was present.

Throughout the trial, the 80-year-old Cosby repeatedly talked to Page Six about “that place.” He meant a prison cell, which might become his home for the rest of his life beginning this summer, when a judge could sentence him to a maximum of 30 years.

“When they send me to that place, I want you to be there to tell my story because it seems no one is listening, no one wants the real story,” Cosby said.

“When they send me to that place, I want you to be there to tell my story because it seems no one is listening, no one wants the real story.”

— Bill Cosby

During his first trial a year ago, he also spoke to Page Six, with the agreement that nothing could be shared publicly during the legal proceeding. But at the recently concluded retrial, his public demeanor turned bitter and coarse. He could be heard using hard language: “Damn you! F–k this! Bulls–t.”

He often ground his teeth, bit his lip and clenched his fist, as the parade of female accusers told their stories of being drugged and sexually assaulted.

After the verdict was read Thursday and Judge Steven O’Neill chastised District Attorney Kevin Steele for his continued objection to allowing Cosby to remain free on bail, Cosby erupted.

Video

“He doesn’t have a plane, you a- -hole. I’m sick of this,” Cosby screamed at Steele.

The prosecutor had said Cosby had a private plane and could escape custody.

“When there was talk of a plea bargain, I said no,” Cosby told Page Six last year. “I just refused to plead guilty to something that just didn’t happen. It didn’t happen, and Andrea knows that, and I think [prosecutors] know that.”

“When there was talk of a plea bargain, I said no. I just refused to plead guilty to something that just didn’t happen. It didn’t happen, and Andrea knows that, and I think [prosecutors] know that.”

— Bill Cosby

The deal offered in 2017 would have required Cosby to serve under house arrest, register as a sex offender and be on probation for an undisclosed period.

“Why take a deal?” he said. “Not when they want me to say that I’m a sex offender. I didn’t do what they said I did.

“But, you know, I think back to the time when Camille and I went to visit Nelson Mandela in South Africa. He was a free man, but I remember when we met him at Robben Island where he had been in a prison for all of those years. I sat in that cell where he lived, and I saw how he lived . . . what he had to eat to live and what he went through.

“So, if they send me to that place, then that’s what they will do, and I will have to go there.”