Bill Cosby jailed
Bill Cosby undid his crimson silk tie, removed the jacket of his navy pinstripe suit and rolled up his sleeves before being handcuffed and led slowly from the courtroom.
‘‘This is it; this is the day,’’ said Tamara Green, a 70-year-old Cosby accuser who had travelled from San Diego to Pennsylvania to watch the entertainer face justice. Trembling, she raised her right fist in the air as a sheriff’s deputy escorted Cosby through the courthouse.
‘‘It’s just unbelievable and such catharsis, really,’’ said Victoria Valentino, 75, a former Playboy model who accused Cosby of drugging and raping her in Los Angeles in 1969, as tears trickled down her cheek. ‘‘He thought he could get away with it all.’’
Completing a spectacular fall from the heights of stardom, Cosby was sentenced yesterday to three to 10 years in state prison, the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be locked up.
Rejecting the defence argument that Cosby was too frail to handle time behind bars, Montgomery County 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, who sat motionless and appeared to show no reaction, declined the opportunity to address the court, waiving his right to have the last word before the sentence was handed down.
The entertainer, who proclaims his innocence and is likely to appeal, 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.
Outside the courthouse, a Cosby spokesman seemed to put the blame on his accusers.
‘‘They persecuted Jesus and look what happened,’’ said his publicist, Andrew Wyatt. ‘‘Not saying that Mr Cosby is Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.’’
The judge denied a request from Cosby’s attorneys that their client remain free on $1 million bail while he pursues an appeal.
‘‘I am not permitted to treat him any differently because of who he is or who he was,’’ the judge said.
‘‘Of course, the higher the ascent, the sharper the fall. I recognise that impact on you, Mr Cosby, and I am sorry for that.’’
Cosby was taken to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in nearby Eagleville, and then to a 3830-bed state correctional facility called Phoenix. From there, he will be assigned to a state institution in Pennsylvania.
The first major celebrity to go on trial since the #MeToo movement began, Cosby was convicted in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former university basketball official, at his home in 2004.
More than 60 women have come forward in recent years to accuse Cosby of sexual misconduct, but Constand, 45, is the only woman whose complaint has led to a criminal conviction.
Many of the alleged incidents were beyond the statute of limitations. – Los Angeles Times