Bill Cosby was sentenced Tuesday to three to ten years in state
prison by a Pennsylvania judge, who had designated the comedian a
“sexually violent predator.”
ABC News reports that the two-day hearing was attended by about a
dozen women who accused Cosby of sexual assault, including Andrea
Constand, whom he was convicted of assaulting in his suburban
Philadelphia home in 2004.
“It’s been a long journey to get here and today justice was served.
“It has been a long time coming, but it arrived when a convicted
felon named William H. Cosby Jr. left the courtroom in handcuffs headed
off to state prison for his crimes,” Montgomery County District Attorney
Kevin Steele said after the sentencing.
Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby in a Norristown, Pennsylvania,
courtroom and rejected a request from defense attorneys to allow Cosby
to be released on bail pending appeals.
O’Neill ordered Cosby to serve the sentence in “total confinement” for “no less than 3 years and no more than 10 years.”
“Mr. Cosby, you were convicted of a very serious crime, that you
penetrated Andrea Constand’s genitals with your hands without her
permission”, O’Neill said.
O’Neill called Cosby’s crime a “planned predation” and that he has
never shown any remorse and has not sought any kind of psychological
counseling.
O’Neill told Constand that her victim impact statement presented to
the judge in writing and partly giving in court Monday was a major
factor in helping him decide Cosby’s sentence.
“I put a high degree of weight on the impact of the victim and her family,” O’Neill said.
In a written statement to O’Neill, which was released Tuesday,
Constand wrote, “Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and
crushed it. He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature, and
my trust in myself and others.”
Before sentencing Cosby, O’Neill asked defense attorney Joseph Green
whether Cosby wanted to make a statement before he is sentenced. Cosby
declined.