BILL COSBY SENTENCED TO 3 TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON FOR 2004 SEX ASSAULT
Bill Cosby was sentenced today to a minimum of three to a maximum of 10 years in state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago, becoming the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison. Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill handed down the sentence after he ruled Cosby to be a sexually violent predator for the assault on Temple University women’s basketball administrator Andrea Constand at the comedian’s estate near Philadelphia in 2004.
“It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come,” O’Neill said. He quoted from Constand’s own statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her “beautiful, young spirit and crushed it.”
The punishment all but completed the dizzying, late-in-life fall for the comedian, former TV star and breaker of racial barriers.
Cosby will be sent to the county jail and await to be transferred to a state prison. Cosby was also ordered to pay court costs of $25,000 and instructed not to have any contact with Constand or her family.