Starting life behind bars
81-year-old Bill Cosby gets three to 10 years’ jail for sex assault, in what was seen by many of his accusers as a reckoning richly deserved and long overdue.
NORRISTOWN: At an age when other Hollywood stars are settling into retirement and collecting lifetime achievement awards, 81-yearold Bill Cosby was led away to prison in handcuffs, sentenced to three to 10 years behind bars in what was seen by many of his accusers as a reckoning richly deserved and long overdue.
The comedian, TV star and breaker of racial barriers became the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison on Tuesday.
He was found guilty in April of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his gated estate in 2004 after being barraged with similar accusations from more than 60 women over the past five decades.
“It is time for justice. Mr Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come,” Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill said.
He quoted from victim Andrea Constand’s statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her “beautiful, young spirit and crushed it”.
Cosby declined the opportunity to speak before the sentence came down, and afterward sat laughing and chatting with his defence team.
Constand smiled broadly on hearing the punishment and was hugged by others in the courtroom.
In a blistering statement, Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the comic was subjected to the “most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States”.
Wyatt said all three of the psychologists who testified against Cosby were “white women who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators”.
Cosby’s lawyers asked that he be allowed to remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction, but the judge appeared incredulous over the request and ordered him locked up immediately, saying that “he could quite possibly be a danger to the community”.
The comedian – who is legally blind and uses a cane – removed his watch, tie and jacket and walked out in a white dress shirt and red suspenders, his hands cuffed.
He appeared downcast, his eyes failing to meet the camera, in a mug shot released by authorities.
Cosby must serve the minimum of three years before becoming eligible for parole.
“For decades, the defendant has been able to hide his true self and his crimes using his fame and fortune.
“He’s hidden behind a character he created, Dr Cliff Huxtable,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said at a news conference, referring to Cosby’s best-known role.
“Now, finally, Bill Cosby has been unmasked, and we have seen the real man as he is headed off to prison.”
Former model Janice Dickinson, who has also accused Cosby of violating her, looked at him in the courtroom and said: “Who gets the last laugh, pal?”
Cosby’s punishment, which also included a US$25,000 (RM103,300) fine, came at the end of a two-day hearing at which the judge declared him a “sexually violent predator” – a modern-day scarlet letter that subjects him to monthly counseling for the rest of his life and requires that neighbours and schools be notified of his whereabouts.
A psychologist for the state testi- fied that Cosby appeared to have a mental disorder characterised by an uncontrollable urge to have sex with women without their consent.
The comic once known as America’s Dad for his role on the top-rated Cosby Show in the 1980s was convicted in April of violating Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. It was the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Constand testified that Cosby gave her what she thought were herbal pills to ease stress, and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay immobilised on a couch.
Cosby claimed the encounter was consensual, and his lawyers branded her a “con artist” who framed the comedian to get a big payday – a US$3.4mil (RM14mil) settlement she received over a decade ago.
Five other accusers took the stand at the trial as part of an effort by prosecutors to portray him as a predator.
Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women of New York, credited Cosby’s accusers with helping to pave the way for #MeToo.
In a statement submitted to the court and released on Tuesday, Constand, 45, said she’d had to cope with years of anxiety and selfdoubt. She said she now lived alone with her two dogs and had trouble trusting people.
“When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities,” she wrote.
“Now, almost 15 years later, I’m a middle-aged woman who’s been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or move forward.
“We may never know the full extent of his (Cosby’s) double life as a sexual predator, but his decadeslong reign of terror as a serial rapist is over.”