Bill Cosby Sentenced to Prison Following Sexual Assault Conviction
Bill Cosby finally learned his fate on Tuesday in a courtroom in Norristown, Pennsylvania, after being found guilty in April of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman.
The 81-year-old comedian was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison by judge Steven O'Neil, according to the Associated Press.
On the second day of his sentence hearing, the judge also ruled that Cosby will be classified as a SVP (sexually violent predator), though his defense argued against the classification on Monday. The classification means that Cosby's address, job and travel plans have to be communicated to the state and all the information about his whereabouts will be made public.
A Montgomery County spokesperson tells ET that Cosby will be leaving Montgomery County Correctional Facility on Tuesday night, and will be transported to the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. In his booking photo, Cosby looked down.
In April, Cosby was found guilty on three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault stemming from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, a former employee at his alma mater, Temple University. The jury reached the verdict in court during a retrial, though the Cosby Show star still maintains that he's innocent.
On Tuesday, Cosby's accusers, including model Janice Dickinson, entered the courtroom as a united front, taking their seats in the third row behind Constand and her family. The women huddled close together and draped a white fleece blanket across their laps in the chilly courtroom. However, throughout the hearing, the accusers seemed restless. Dickinson sat with her head in her arms but jolted up multiple times when the defense said something she objected to. Later, when the judge said Cosby would have to register an a SVP, she silently did a double first pump.
Meanwhile, Constand and her family appeared to be in good spirits upon entering the courtroom, greeting friends and media before taking their seats.
As for Cosby, he took his seat in the front of the courtroom and kept his gaze facing forward. When the judge said he would have to register a a SVP, he didn't flinch, and continued to look ahead and did not react in any discernible way.
In Constand's victim impact statement, she described how the sexual assault had a lasting effect on her.
“To truly understand the impact that the sexual assault has had on my life, you have to understand the person that I was before it happened," she wrote. "... After the assault, I wasn't sure what had actually happened but the pain spoke volumes. The shame was overwhelming. Self-doubt and confusion kept me from turning to my family or friends as I normally did. I felt completely alone, unable to trust anyone, including myself. ... I couldn’t talk, eat, sleep or socialize.”
She also talked about how she was affected after going public with her accusations against Cosby.
“The psychological, emotional and financial bullying included a slander campaign in the media that left my entire family reeling in shock and disbelief," she wrote. " ... 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 move forward.”
Amid all this, Cosby's wife, Camille, has stood by her husband and posted a lengthy statement on Facebook in May in his defense. “Someday the truth will prevail, it always does," she wrote in part.
Here's more of Camille's statement:
Reporting by Darla Murray.
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