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Bill Cosby Sentenced to 3 to 10 Years in Prison; Bail Is Denied
Bill Cosby, Once a Model of Fatherhood, Is Sent to Prison for Sexual Assault
(about 3 hours later)
• Bill Cosby was given a three- to 10-year prison sentence on Tuesday for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, Andrea Constand, at his home outside Philadelphia 14 years ago.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby, who for years dodged accusations that he had preyed on women while brightening America’s living rooms as a beloved father figure, left a courtroom in handcuffs on Tuesday after he was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in his home.
• Ten women who had accused Mr. Cosby of sexual abuse, including Ms. Constand, were in the courthouse to witness the sentencing.
The sentence capped Mr. Cosby’s stunning fall from a towering figure in popular culture to an 81-year-old convicted sex offender.
• Prosecutors had asked that he be sentenced to the maximum: 10 years in prison.
“It is time for justice,” Judge Steven T. O’Neill said as he announced the term. “Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The day has come. The time has come.” Acknowledging the impact that the case has had on Mr. Cosby’s legacy, Judge O’Neill added: “Fallen angels suffer most.”
• Before sentencing, Judge Steven T. O’Neill upheld a state board’s finding that Mr. Cosby is a sexually violent predator.
Mr. Cosby, who has said he will appeal the conviction, was denied bail and ordered to prison immediately.
• The court released Ms. Constand’s full victim impact statement, in which she wrote: “Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it.”
As he listened to his sentence, Mr. Cosby leaned back in his seat, staring at the ceiling, and then gazed calmly forward. He declined to address the courtroom before hearing his fate, and did not react when the sentence was announced. Just before 3 p.m., Mr. Cosby was taken into custody wearing an undone white shirt and red suspenders, having removed his tie and jacket.
• Mr. Cosby declined an opportunity to address the court before his sentence was handed down.
The actor and comedian was found guilty in April of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee to whom he had been a mentor. The case marked the first high-profile conviction since the #MeToo movement put an international spotlight on women’s stories of abuse, especially in Hollywood, and represented a symbolic victory for the many others who said they were victimized by Mr. Cosby over the years.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — 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.
[Read Ms. Constand’s victim statement and reactions to the sentence.]
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.
Ms. Constand, who now works as a massage therapist in Canada, stared straight ahead as Mr. Cosby’s sentence was delivered. She was joined in the Montgomery County Courthouse on Tuesday by at least nine other women who had accused Mr. Cosby of 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. Mr. Cosby’s wife, Camille, was not.
In a victim impact statement filed with the court, Ms. Constand said of Mr. 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.”
“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.”
After her assault, “life as I knew it came to an abrupt halt,” Ms. Constand wrote. “I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities. 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 to move forward.”
Acknowledging the impact that the case has had on Mr. Cosby’s legacy, Judge O’Neill added: “fallen angels suffer most.”
She added: “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.”
Mr. Cosby is heading straight to prison as the judge denied him a request that he remain free on bail while he pursues an anticipated appeal. He was emotionless as he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs by four sheriff’s deputies.
A publicist for Mr. Cosby, Andrew Wyatt, decried the verdict outside the courtroom, calling the proceedings “the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.” He invoked an ongoing “sex war” in this country, and tied Mr. Cosby’s fate to that of the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the latest prominent man to face accusations of sexual misconduct on a grand stage. (Mr. Kavanaugh has denied sexually assaulting anyone.)
[We want to hear what our readers are thinking about this week’s #MeToo news about Bill Cosby and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.]
Mr. Cosby’s journey from the top of the world to prison was a long one. Ms. Constand first went to the police about a year after the January 2004 incident, when, Ms. Constand said, Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted her after giving her pills that made her drift in and out of consciousness.
Prosecutors had asked for a maximum term of five to 10 years.
Prosecutors declined to press charges at the time, citing insufficient evidence. Following a lawsuit that was settled out of court for $3.4 million, a decade passed before prosecutors in Montgomery County revisited the case, spurred by renewed public interest and previously unheard accounts from dozens of women about Mr. Cosby’s alleged pattern of abuse.
When the sentence was announced, Mr. Cosby sat quietly and made no reaction. Ms. Constand stared straight ahead. The other women accusers, seated more toward the back, did not celebrate. But some later expressed their happiness.
Mr. Cosby’s defense team argued that Mr. Cosby’s relationship with Ms. Constand was consensual, and that the drug he gave her, which he had previously described as Benadryl, was to relax her because she was tense. After his arrest in December 2015, Mr. Cosby’s first trial ended inconclusively in 2017 with a hung jury after six days of deliberations.
“This is fair and just,” said Janice Dickinson, the former model who had testified at the trial that Mr. Cosby had assaulted her at a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 1982. “I am victorious.”
But at the retrial here in April, in the same courthouse and before the same judge, a jury convicted Mr. Cosby on the second day of their deliberations on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. One major difference in the second trial was the judge’s decision to allow five additional women to testify against Mr. Cosby. Their testimony, often graphic and affecting, bolstered Ms. Constand’s.
Mr. Cosby’s journey to prison was a long one. After his arrest in December 2015, his first trial in 2017 ended with a hung jury after six days of deliberations.
Mr. Cosby had faced a maximum 30-year prison term: 10 years for each of three counts of assault he was convicted of. But Judge O’Neill chose on Monday to merge the counts into one, as is allowed when they stem from the same event. Under the state sentencing guidelines, Mr. Cosby could be eligible for parole after serving three years, and may serve a maximum of 10 years in state prison.
But at the retrial here in April, in the same courthouse and before the same judge, a jury convicted Mr. Cosby on only the second day of deliberations on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. One key difference in the trials: During the retrial, Judge O’Neill allowed five additional accusers to give their accounts of what they said was sexual abuse by Mr. Cosby. During the first trial, he had allowed only one additional accuser to join Ms. Constand in giving an account.
Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, Joseph P. Green, had argued Monday that Mr. Cosby should be sentenced to house arrest. Mr. Cosby’s age and the fact he is legally blind meant he was no risk, Mr. Green said, especially since there have been no new allegations of sexual abuse leveled against him since 2004.
Mr. Cosby’s trial and conviction has played out at a time when the country is coming to terms with a culture of predatory sexual abuse by powerful men.
“How’s he going to meet these people?” the lawyer said, adding that the judge was required “to make sure that public advocacy doesn’t affect the application of the rule of law.”
A large number of the women who accused Mr. Cosby of abusing them had expected a long prison sentence, one that offered a measure of comfort since their own claims were barred by the statute of limitations when they came forward in the past few years. Under the state sentencing guidelines, the range of the prison term Mr. Cosby was given Tuesday means he could be eligible for parole after serving three years, and may serve a maximum of ten years in state prison.
As Judge O’Neill explained his sentence, he acknowledged Mr. Cosby’s age and his blindness, but said: “That’s not the factor I am putting most weight on. This was a serious crime.”
Judge O’Neill, who also fined Mr. Cosby $25,000, referenced Ms. Constand’s victim impact statement, where she described the emotional pain the assault had left her in. “As she said, Mr. Cosby,” the judge said, “you took her beautiful healthy young spirit and you crushed it.”
Other women who accused Mr. Cosby of drugging and assaulting them were expecting a long sentence, one that offered a measure of comfort since their own claims were barred by statutes of limitations when they came forward in the past few years.
Judge O’Neill ruled earlier in the day that Mr. Cosby qualified as a “sexually violent predator” under Pennsylvania law.
On the courthouse steps after the sentencing, Janice Dickinson, a former model who was one of the five women permitted to testify, said, “My heart is beating out of my chest at the moment.” Ms. Dickinson had told the court that Mr. Cosby raped her in 1982 after giving her a pill.
His decision came after testimony by a psychologist for the defense, who said Mr. Cosby did not deserve that classification. The expert, Timothy Foley, said Mr. Cosby was no longer a threat to anyone and he contradicted a psychologist, Kristen F. Dudley, representing Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board who testified Monday, the first day of Mr. Cosby’s sentencing hearing. Dr. Dudley had said Mr. Cosby had demonstrated a lifetime interest in sex with nonconsenting women, which indicated a mental abnormality.
“This is fair and just,” she said. “I am victorious.”
The determination of whether a defendant is a sexually violent predator can be a factor in sentencing and in the conditions imposed both in prison and afterward.
The judge on Tuesday also upheld a Pennsylvania state board finding that officially categorized Mr. Cosby as a sexually violent predator, meaning he must undergo counseling for the rest of his life; report quarterly to authorities; and be registered as a sex offender. A psychologist who testified for the defense on Tuesday said he did not find Mr. Cosby to be a risk to the community, but said he had read none of the trial records or depositions in the case, and was not aware that five other women testified against Mr. Cosby.
“I found him to be extraordinarily low risk,” Dr. Foley said.
“I’m so glad he has to register as a sexually violent predator, because he is,” Chelan Lasha, who testified that Mr. Cosby assaulted her in 1986 when she was a 17-year-old aspiring model, said in an interview. “I feel like I’m getting 32 years of closure.”
He came to his opinion, he said, after he met with Mr. Cosby for three hours on July 18 and also after reviewing some records. He said he had read none of the trial records or depositions in the case.
Ms. Lasha said that the ordeal had brought her and other alleged victims of Mr. Cosby together. On Monday night, she said, the women gathered around a hotel fireplace together and sang Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.”
M. Stewart Ryan, a prosecutor, asked whether he was aware that Mr. Cosby had admitted to getting seven prescriptions of quaaludes to give to women for sex. Dr. Foley said he wasn’t.
“We call each other sisters,” Ms. Lasha said, adding that they one day planned to take a cruise together.
Dr. Foley also said he didn’t know that five other women had testified at trial that they had been assaulted by Mr. Cosby.
Mr. Cosby’s lawyers have said they will pursue an appeal that challenges the judge’s rulings. Experts said one issue likely to be the basis for an appeal is Judge O’Neill’s decision to allow the five women to testify.
Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, Joseph P. Green, argued Monday that Mr. Cosby’s age, 81, and the fact he is legally blind, meant he was no risk, especially since there have been no new allegations of sexual abuse leveled against him since 2004.
In Pennsylvania and many other states, testimony concerning prior alleged crimes is allowed if, among other conditions, it demonstrates a signature pattern of abuse. But its inclusion is rare. Judge O’Neill explained his rationale on Tuesday, saying that he had based that ruling on a legal “doctrine of implausibility.” He said that so many women had come forward to accuse Mr. Cosby of sexual abuse that it had become implausible to find that it wasn’t true.
“How’s he going to meet these people?” Mr. Green said. “There is no reasonable prospect that an 81-year-old blind man is likely to reoffend.”
Though he has denied assaulting anyone, Mr. Cosby had admitted in recent years to decades of philandering, and to giving quaaludes to women as part of his efforts to have sex.
But the psychologist for the state panel, Dr. Dudley, said she did not believe the disorder had dissipated with age. “It is possible that he has already met someone who could be a future victim,” she said.
His wife, Camille, who had stuck by him throughout the trial and criticized the presiding judge, was not present at the sentencing. Through a spokeswoman, Ebonee Benson, Ms. Cosby issued a statement accusing the district attorney of “egregious injustices.”
The final decision by Judge O’Neill upheld the board’s finding. He said the state had met “a clear and convincing standard.”
Mr. Cosby’s conviction, and his own admissions, have destroyed the image he had constructed as one of the country’s most successful comedians and as the upstanding paterfamilias in the popular 1980s and ’90s sitcom “The Cosby Show.”
Mr. Cosby was convicted in April of drugging and assaulting Ms. Constand, a former Temple University employee to whom he had been a mentor.
Gloria Allred, an attorney who represents 33 women who say they were sexually assaulted by Mr. Cosby, said the sentence signals to any other sexual abusers of women that there are significant penalties for such offenses.
Ms. Constand spoke in court on Monday, along with her mother, father and sister. Ms. Constand told the judge: “The jury heard me, Mr. Cosby heard me and now all I am asking for is justice as the court sees fit.”
“Hopefully it sends a message to other celebrities, to the rich, the powerful, the famous, that to drug and assault women is no joke,” she said.
But Mr. Cosby told the judge Tuesday through his lawyer that he did not intend to speak before sentencing.
And Sonia Ossorio, the president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, released a statement praising “the courageous survivors who spoke out and the diligent prosecutors.”
Mr. Cosby has denied all the accusations against him and most experts had said they did not anticipate he would express remorse because his team has already announced plans to appeal his conviction.
“They exposed Bill Cosby,” she said, “and they helped pave the way for the #MeToo movement that is transforming our world.”
He did answer a few procedural questions, and asked a question as prosecutors led him through a list of his duties now that he will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. “If I went from a city to another city do I have to, even if it’s just overnight, I have to get in touch with the state police?” Mr. Cosby said. Mr. Ryan, the prosecutor, said he should consult his lawyer.
Nine women who have accused Mr. Cosby of similar acts of sexual abuse were in the courtroom Tuesday to watch the sentencing, including three who testified at the trial in April.
But Mrs. Cosby was not there.
Joseph Cammarata, a lawyer for several of the women who have brought civil suits against Mr. Cosby, said the focus would now switch to the civil courts where litigation has been on hold pending the criminal trial.
“This is a significant event,” he said.
Mr. Cosby had originally faced a maximum 30-year prison term: 10 years for each of three counts of aggravated indecent assault he was convicted of.
But Judge O’Neill chose on Monday to merge the counts into one, as is allowed when they stem from the same event. In this case, they originated with an encounter in January 2004 when, Ms. Constand said, Mr. Cosby sexually assaulted her after giving her pills that made her drift in and out of consciousness.
Judge O’Neill had to consider state guidelines that recommend, but do not mandate, appropriate sentence ranges. Those guidelines, which take into account any previous criminal record (Mr. Cosby has none), the seriousness of the offense, and mitigating and aggravating factors, suggest a range of about 10 months to four years, but Judge O’Neill had great leeway, and prosecutors on Monday asked him to sentence Mr. Cosby to a maximum five-to-10-year term.
Kevin R. Steele, the Montgomery County District Attorney, said Monday that the judge should use the sentencing to send a wider message.
“The bottom line, your honor, is nobody’s above the law,” said Mr. Steele. “Others in a similar situation need to understand that.”
Mr. Cosby’s lawyer, Mr. Green, argued Tuesday for house arrest, suggesting that prison would be too harsh a sentence for a “blind octogenarian first offender.”
Mr. Cosby’s lawyers have said they will pursue an appeal that challenges the judge’s rulings.
Experts said one clear issue likely to be the basis for an appeal is Judge O’Neill’s decision to allow the five additional women accusers to testify at the second trial. Their testimony, often graphic and affecting, bolstered that of Ms. Constand.
Testimony concerning prior alleged crimes is only allowed in Pennsylvania, as in other states, if, among other conditions, it demonstrates a signature pattern of abuse. But its inclusion is extremely rare, and Judge O’Neill did not explain at the time why he allowed the five additional women to testify in the trial this year after allowing only one additional accuser to speak at Mr. Cosby’s first trial in 2017.
The judge defended that decision, explaining that he had based that ruling on a legal “doctrine of implausibility.” He said that so many women had come forward to accuse Mr. Cosby of sexual abuse that it had become implausible to find that it wasn’t true.
Judge O’Neill said that, while he recognized that Mr. Cosby had serious issues on appeal, he could not agree to bail as the defense requested. “This is a serious crime,” he said. “This is a sexual assault crime. The evidence I have before me means he could well be a danger to the community.”
Mr. Cosby was scheduled to spend several days at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility before being transferred to a state prison known as SCI Phoenix, where officials will make a final determination on where he will serve his sentence.
