Bill Cosby sentenced to 3-10 years in prison.

Posted By

Message

Member since 3/09

8268 total posts

Name:
S

Bill Cosby sentenced to 3-10 years in prison.

NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania -- A judge sentenced Bill Cosby to three to 10 years in prison Tuesday, shortly after declaring the 81-year-old comedian a "sexually violent predator" for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago.

Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O'Neill told Cosby he was sentencing him to "total confinement in a state facility," saying Cosby has never shown remorse and has not sought any type of psychological counseling.

The "sexually violent predator" classification means that Cosby must undergo monthly counseling for the rest of his life and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.

The comic once known as America's Dad faced anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison after being convicted in April of violating Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004, in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.

Prosecutors asked for five to 10 years in prison, while the defense requested house arrest because they argued the legally blind Cosby was too old and helpless to do time behind bars.

Cosby's lawyers had fought the "sexually violent predator" designation, arguing that Pennsylvania's sex-offender law remains unconstitutional and that he is no threat to the public at his age. But O'Neill said prosecutors had met their burden of proof by "clear and convincing" evidence.

Meanwhile, Constand said in a statement submitted to the court and released Tuesday that she has had to cope with years of anxiety and self-doubt that have left her "stuck in a holding pattern."

Constand, 45, said her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but "life as I knew it" ended on the night that Cosby knocked her out with pills and violated her.

Constand said she now lives alone with her two dogs and has 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 in her five-page statement. "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 to move forward."

In the years since Constand first went to authorities in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, though none of those claims have led to criminal charges.

The judge ruled on Cosby's sex-offender status after a defense psychologist, Timothy Foley, testified that the chances of the comedian committing another sex offense are "extraordinarily low" because he is old, legally blind and needs help getting around. On Monday, a psychologist for the state testified that Cosby appears to have a mental disorder that gives him an uncontrollable urge to assault women.

Cosby was smiling and joking with his spokesman and sheriff's deputies as he settled into the courtroom Tuesday. On Day 1 of the sentencing, the comic laughed at times as the psychologist on the stand for the state portrayed him as a sexual predator with signs of a mental disorder.

Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom; they are generally banned in Pennsylvania.

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the former TV star planned to remain silent when given the opportunity to address the court. Cosby did not testify at either of his two trials.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, which Constand and other accusers have done.

Cosby became the first black actor to star in a prime-time TV show, "I Spy," in 1965. He remained a Hollywood A-lister for much of the next half-century.

Posted 9/25/18 2:48 PM