Bill Cosby gets three to 10 years in prison
81-year-old declined to comment at his sentencing and must register as a sex offender
NORRISTOWN, PA. — Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, completing the famed actor and comic’s spectacular fall from one of America’s most beloved entertainers to disgraced sex offender.
Rejecting the defence argument that Cosby was too frail to handle time behind bars, Judge Steven O’Neill ordered the 81-year-old entertainer to serve no less than three years and no more than 10 years in prison and to register as a sex offender, a label that will follow him for the rest of his life.
“Mr. Cosby, this all circles back to you,” the judge said as he imposed the sentence. “The day has come. The time has come.”
Cosby declined the opportunity to address the court Tuesday, waiving his right to have the last word before the sentence was handed down.
The entertainer never took the witness stand during his two trials and never gave any outward indication of contrition for the crimes he was accused of committing.
Prosecutors had called for Cosby to spend five to 10 years in prison and pay a $25,000 fine, arguing that he is a sexual predator who has shown no remorse. The defence team countered that Cosby, who walks with a wooden cane and is legally blind,
should be put under house arrest as he poses no risk to the community.
The first major celebrity to go on trial in the #MeToo era, Cosby was convicted in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, 45, of Toronto and a former university basketball official, at his home in 2004.
Cosby, who has maintained his innocence, initially faced up to 30 years in prison, but on Monday O’Neill said the defence and prosecution had agreed to merge the three counts of his conviction into one. Dozens of women have come forward in recent years to accuse Cosby of sexual misconduct, but Constand is the only woman whose complaint has led to a criminal conviction.
The barrage of accusations against Cosby has shocked and unnerved a nation that grew up watching him on television in the role of a wholesome, exemplary family man.
In the public imagination, he was “America’s Dad,” synonymous with Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable, the kindly, respectable, upper-middle-class obstetrician he portrayed on “The Cosby Show,” his popular and groundbreaking television sitcom that aired for eight seasons from 1984 until 1992.
The sentencing wraps up a long back-and-forth between Cosby and Constand. The onetime basketball official at Cosby’s alma mater first reported an assault to police in 2005. However, the Montgomery County district attorney at the time did not press charges, so she brought a civil suit against Cosby. It was not until a decade later, when a series of women came forward with accusations against Cosby, that the new district attorney, Kevin Steele, reopened the case.
In 2017, the first trial ended with a hung jury.
In the April retrial, a jury of seven men and five women found Cosby guilty of assault with lack of consent, penetration while the victim was unconscious, and assault after impairing the victim with an intoxicant.
Cosby, who posted $1 million bail, has been confined to his home outside Philadelphia during the last five months, fitted with a GPS monitor and limited to travel only to visit his attorneys or for medical reasons.
His defence team has indicated it plans to appeal. On Tuesday, O’Neill denied the team’s request that Cosby remain out on bail.