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 Cosby, 81, was found guilty in April of three counts of
aggravated indecent assault for the drugging and sexual assault
of his one-time friend Andrea Constand, a former Temple
University administrator, at his Philadelphia home in 2004.
He is the first celebrity to be convicted of sexual abuse since
the start of the #MeToo movement, the national reckoning with
misconduct that has brought down dozens of powerful men in
entertainment, politics and other fields.
Cosby must spend at least three years in a Pennsylvania prison
before he becomes eligible for supervised release, though he
could end up behind bars for up to a decade.
Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill
ordered Cosby to be jailed immediately, denying Cosby's request
for bail while lawyers appeal the conviction.
He was escorted out a back door of the courthouse with his hands
and feet shackled and driven away in a black sport utility
vehicle.
Minutes earlier, Constand left court with her arms folded, a
smile spreading across her face as other women who have accused
Cosby came to hug her. Several of those women spoke to reporters
in the rain outside the courtroom.
"I wanted 30 years, but I'm very happy to know Mr. Cosby will do
time in prison," said Chelan Lasha, who gave tearful testimony
in court about the time she says Cosby drugged and groped her in
the 1980s.
O'Neill also fined Cosby $25,000 and ordered him to pay the
costs of the prosecution. There was no visible reaction from the
disgraced entertainer as he learned his fate.
"Equal justice under the law does not allow different treatment
because of who he is or who he was," O'Neill said.
Cosby cemented his family-friendly reputation playing the
affable Dr. Cliff Huxtable in the 1980s television comedy "The
Cosby Show."
"He hid behind Dr. Cliff Huxtable," Kevin Steele, the county
district attorney who led the prosecution, told reporters
afterwards. "Before he was taken away in handcuffs, a lot of
people believed this was who he was. We know otherwise."
After the sentencing, Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's spokesman, read a
lengthy statement in which he decried what he called "the most
racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States."
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SEXUALLY VIOLENT PREDATORY
O'Neill also decided to designate Cosby a "sexually violent
predator" under Pennsylvania law.
Under that designation, Cosby will have to undergo monthly
counseling and register as a sex offender with police for the rest
of his life. Neighbors and schools will be notified of his address,
certain movements and crimes, as will Constand.
When prosecutors told Cosby in court he would not have to inform
Constand of his movements himself but that a proxy would do so, he
replied: "Good!"
Cosby has denied any wrongdoing. Asked if he wanted to address the
court with a statement before sentencing, Cosby declined through his
lawyers. His lawyers had asked that Cosby be placed under house
arrest, citing his age and frailty.
More than 50 women have accused Cosby of sexual abuse going back
decades, with most complaints too old to prosecute. The Constand
case was the only allegation that led to criminal charges.
Constand said in a written statement submitted to the court on
Monday that the attack had turned her into a woman who was "stuck in
a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully
or to move forward."
"Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it,"
she wrote.
Cosby's first trial in 2017 ended in a mistrial when jurors could
not reach a unanimous verdict.
Prison officials will process Cosby at the nearby state prison in
Schwenksville before determining in which of Pennsylvania's 22 male
prisons he will serve his sentence, prison spokeswoman Amy Worden
wrote in an email.
He will be one of 86 inmates over age 80 held by Pennsylvania’s
Department of Corrections, where the two oldest inmates are both 91,
Worden said.
(Reporting by David DeKok; Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg
in New York; writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by Meredith Mazzilli
and Tom Brown)
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