Anitra Burrows, a Collegeville, Montgomery County, local who attended the Bill Cosby trial last month in Norristown, managed to snap a few photos and record some audio of the courtroom proceedings on the sly -- until she tried to post it on YouTube.
The video – which was almost two hours long – surfaced on social media last month, leading investigators to Burrows, who admitted to the recording and posting it on YouTube, naming it, “MUST SEE__ The Cosby Case Defense Closing Arguments.”
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Burrows now reportedly has been sentenced to 50 hours of community service for recording and posting the footage.
“I just figured this was my one time to have a video go viral,” Burrows said to President Judge Thomas DelRicci. “I pray for the mercy of the court.”
Unlike several previous high-profile court cases, the Cosby trial applied a strict ban on the courtroom being televised, live-Tweeted, or recorded in any way. This policy applied to journalists and other civilians alike.
Burrows is also banned from attending any future Cosby-related proceedings.
What are the chances that video is still floating around out there? Thomas McGoldrick, deputy district attorney in Montgomery County, told Newsworks that authorities deleted the recording from Burrows’ phone and personal computer, but there’s always the possibility it’s still in the web ether.
“We’re reasonably sure that it’s not floating out there,” he said. “But I can’t say 100 percent.”