Bill Cosby Sentenced for Sexual Assault Charges

Bill Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday, Sept. 25, in regards to his sexual assault conviction, with the 81-year-old sentenced to a Pennsylvania state prison for 3-10 years, the Associated Press reports.

The decision was made by Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who oversaw Cosby’s 2018 retrial, which followed his previous mistrial a year ago that resulted in a hung jury.

“I’m not permitted to treat him any differently based on who he is or who he was,” O’Neill said during sentencing, according to TMZ. Cosby was denied bail.

The length of Cosby’s sentence will be decided by the PA Department of Corrections. The comedian was also fined $25,000, reporter Phil Gianficaro tweeted.

On Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to merge the three counts of his conviction together which left the comedian facing a maximum sentence of 10 years.

On Tuesday, Cosby was classified as a “sexually violent predator,” which means he must report quarterly to authorities and undergo lifetime sex offender counseling. His name will also appear on a sex-offender registry sent sent to neighbors and schools.

The sentence stems from an April hearing during which Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault based on allegations by Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who alleged that the comedian drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2004.

Constand was serving as operations manager for the Temple University women’s basketball program that year and says the comedian invited her to his home to discuss her plans for a potential career change after months of mentoring her. There, Constand alleged that Cosby offered her something to help her relax.

“Three blue pills. And he put his hand out and I said, ‘What are those?’ And he said, ‘They’ll help you relax,’” Constand recalled to NBC’s Kate Snow. “And I said, ‘Are they natural? Are they, like, a herbal remedy?’ And he said, ‘No, they’re your friends. Just put them down.’”

Constand took the pills and stated in court that within a half hour she was slurring her words and could not walk. At that point, she said Cosby helped her to a couch and assaulted her.

“I was crying out inside, in my throat, in my mind, for this to stop. And I couldn’t do anything,” she said.

Cosby was facing up to 30 years in prison after his conviction and was on house arrest until his sentencing.

After his conviction, the comedian’s wife, Camille, called the jury’s decision “mob justice.”

“How much longer will we, the majority of the people, tolerate judicial, executive, legislative, media and corporate abuses of power? We, the majority of the people, must make America what it has declared itself to be…. a democracy…not to be destroyed by vicious, lying, self-absorbed paradigms of evilness,” she said. “Once again, an innocent person has been found guilty based on an unthinking, unquestioning, unconstitutional frenzy propagated by the media and allowed to play out in a supposed court of law.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Gilbert Carrasquillo