Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison, ruled a "sexually violent predator"

Bill Cosby has been sentenced to three to ten years in prison, after Judge Steven O’Neill ruled that he is a “sexually violent predator.” The New York Times reports:

Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home near here 14 years ago, completing the precipitous downfall to disgrace of a man from the heights of stardom and putting an exclamation mark on the first major conviction of the #MeToo era.

Mr. Cosby, 81, had been convicted in April of assaulting Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee at the time of the assault, who had looked upon him as a mentor but ended up being one of the dozens of women who have accused him of acts of predatory sexual abuse.

Nine of those women and Ms. Constand were in the Montgomery County Courthouse to witness the sentencing by Judge Steven T. O’Neill. Ms. Cosby’s wife, Camille, was not.

“It is time for justice, Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you,” Judge O’Neill said. “The day has come. The time has come.”

It was still unclear whether Mr. Cosby will go straight to prison or stay out on bail pending the expected appeal of his conviction. Prosecutors had asked for a maximum term of five to 10 years.

If Cosby serves the full term, he will be 91 when he is released. You can read more here.

An excerpt of Andrea Constand’s victim impact statement reads:

When the case closed with a settlement, sealed testimony and a nondisclosure agreement, I thought that finally — finally — I could get on with my life, that this awful chapter in my life was over at last. These exact same feelings followed me throughout both criminal trials. The attacks on my character continued, spilling over outside the courtroom steps attempting to discredit me, and cast me in false light. These character assassinations have caused me to suffer insurmountable stress and anxiety, which I still experience today.

I still didn’t know that my sexual assault was just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, more than 60 other women have self-identified as sexual assault victims of Bill Cosby. We may never know the full extent of his double life as a sexual predator but his decades-long reign of terror as a serial rapist is over.

You can read Constand’s full statement at the NY Times as well.

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