USA TODAY International Edition
Cosby in custody
81-year-old will serve 3 to 10 years in prison, must register as sex offender
NORRISTOWN, Pa. – A handcuffed Bill Cosby was immediately taken into custody Tuesday after a Montgomery County judge sentenced him to three to 10 years in state prison for the sexual assault of Andrea Constand. “It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come,” Judge Steven O’Neill told the convicted sex offender, denying his request for bail pending appeal and ordering him into immediate custody. He quoted from Constand’s statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her “beautiful young spirit and crushed it.” After the sentencing, Cosby removed his jacket, tie and watch before being taken away in handcuffs, an officer holding his arm. He did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment. Cosby publicist Andrew Wyatt issued a fiery retort outside the courthouse, saying Cosby was denied a fair trial and calling the proceeding “the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.” He cast blame on District Attorney Kevin Steele; a “racist and sexist mass media”; and three white female psychologists “who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators.” Wyatt said Cosby was “doing great” after sentencing. “Mr. Cosby knows that God is watching over him. He knows that these are lies . ... We know
“It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come.” Judge Steven O’Neill
what this country has done to black men for centuries.” Before announcing Cosby’s prison term, O’Neill ruled that he would be designated a “sexually violent predator,” requiring that he register as a sex offender and undergo counseling for the rest of his life after his release from prison. Cosby was fined $25,000 and ordered to pay court costs. The sentence is in line with the one sought by Steele, who asked O’Neill to impose a prison term of five to 10 years after Cosby’s conviction in April on charges he drugged and sexually assaulted Constand in 2004. A defense attorney had asked that Cosby, 81, be spared a prison term, citing his age and frailty. At a post-trial news conference, Steele said justice had finally been served, calling the sentence “fair and significant.” “It’s been a long time coming, but (justice) arrived when a convicted felon named William H. Cosby Jr. left the courtroom in handcuffs, headed off to state prison for his crimes,” he said. “It’s been a long wait for our victim, Andrea Constand, as it has for the other women who have endured similar sexual assaults and rapes at the hands of the defendant.” He said Cosby’s fame, fortune and popularity helped him create a deceptive image. “For decades, the defendant has been able to hide his true self and hide his crimes using his fame and fortune. He’s hidden behind a character, Dr. Cliff Huxtable (of “The Cosby Show”). “It was a seminal character on TV and so was the family, but it was fiction,” Steele said. “Now, finally, Bill Cosby has been unmasked, and we have seen the real man as he is headed off to prison.”