ABC 7 reports that a petition will be turned in next week demanding Bill Cosby’s star be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
According to Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who is the president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, the signatures will be shown to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Monday is the same day Cosby will be in a court in Pennsylvania to start a two-day sentencing hearing for his conviction on sexual abuse charges.
Hutchinson said in a statement, “The campaign to have Cosby’s star removed from Hollywood Boulevard has garnered thousands of signatures in the past three years and hundreds more have signed after his conviction. By keeping the Cosby star and ignoring the demand of thousands for removal the Chamber violates its own rules that an honoree must make worthy contributions to the community. Cosby’s horrendous documented sexual abuses hardly qualify as worthy contributions to the community.” Hutchinson said the organization will continue to obtain signatures.
The chamber has never actually removed a star from the Walk of Fame before and in 2015 it refused a request to remove Cosby’s star.
But it seems the area’s residents would likely be happy with the star being removed. Aside from the number of signatures the petition has gained, the star has been vandalized a few times throughout the last few years. According to CNN , earlier this month someone spray-painted “Serial Rapist” on the star and in 2014 the same words were written across the star with a black marker.
Cosby was found guilty in April of sexually assaulting and drugging a former Temple University staff member named Andrea Constand at his home in Pennsylvania in 2004. He was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
Deadline reports that it looks like Cosby will go to prison for less than three years. In the sentencing hearing on Monday, Constand said to Judge Steven O’Neill, “All I am asking for is justice as the court sees it.”
Andrew Constand also took the stand and said he was “the proudest man in the world” because of his daughter. In a silent courtroom, he detailed the sadness that “hangs like a dark cloud” over him and his family every day. He also took a moment to thank those who have supported and “believed” his daughter.
Billy Cosby, Andrea Constand, Judge O’Neill, and attorneys are expected to be back in court at 9:00 AM EST Tuesday to determine if Cosby should be designated a sexually violent predator which will determine his final sentencing.