NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on Bill Cosby’s sentencing hearing (all times local):
3:35 p.m.
Bill Cosby will spend the first few days of his prison sentence at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility outside Philadelphia.
Cosby left the suburban Philadelphia courthouse in a dark SUV after a judge sentenced the 81-year-old to three to 10 years in state prison for sexual assault.
A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County district attorney’s office says Cosby will be held at the county jail for at least the next few days. From there, he’ll be taken to SCI Phoenix, a new state prison outside Philadelphia, where staff will assess his physical, medical and security needs.
Cosby could end up in a long-term medical care unit.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct during his 50-year career in entertainment. The 2004 assault on Andrea Constand was the only one to lead to criminal charges.
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2:55 p.m.
Bill Cosby has left a Pennsylvania courtroom in handcuffs to begin serving a three-to-10 year prison sentence for sexual assault.
Defense lawyers tried to keep the 81-year-old out of prison while he appeals his conviction, saying he’s frail and legally blind. Judge Steven O’Neill refused their plea for Cosby to remain on house arrest, ruling Tuesday that Cosby will be locked up immediately.
O’Neill says Cosby could “quite possibly be a danger to the community.”
Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct during his 50-year career in entertainment. The 2004 assault on Constand was the only one to lead to criminal charges.
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2:25 p.m.
A judge has denied Bill Cosby that he’s not entitled to bail while the 81-year-old comedian appeals his sexual assault conviction.
Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby on Tuesday to three to 10 years in state prison. His lawyers are arguing that Cosby should remain on home confinement pending appeals. O’Neill says Cosby had no right to it.
The judge said it’s “time for justice” as he sentenced Cosby to state prison and fined him $25,000. The former “Cosby Show” star was convicted in April of drugging and molesting Temple University women’s basketball administrator Andrea Constand in 2004.
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Bill Cosby has been sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home.
Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby on Tuesday, five months after his conviction in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five to 10 years in prison. The defense asked for house arrest.
The 81-year-old comedian did not make a statement in court. Cosby sat back in his chair, his head on the headrest, as the sentence was read.
The entertainer once known as “America’s Dad” was convicted in April of sexually assaulting Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand in 2004.
Constand is one of about 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.
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11:35 a.m.
A judge has ruled that Bill Cosby is a “sexually violent predator.”
The classification means that Cosby must undergo lifetime counseling and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.
Judge Steven O’Neill made the decision Tuesday as he prepares to sentence the 81-year-old comedian for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
Prosecutors are asking for five to 10 years in prison. The defense wants Cosby sent home on house arrest.
Cosby’s lawyers had fought the “sexually violent predator” designation, arguing that Pennsylvania’s sex-offender law remains unconstitutional despite several revisions.
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11:15 a.m.
Andrea Constand says she’s had to cope with years of unrelenting pain, anxiety and self-doubt after Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in 2004.
Constand writes in a victim-impact statement released Tuesday that Cosby’s 2004 attack on her was just “the tip of the iceberg” for the suffering that followed.
Constand says her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but “life as I knew it” ended on the night that Cosby knocked her out with pills and violated her.
She says the Cosby team’s subsequent attacks on her character left her with “insurmountable stress and anxiety.”
Constand says she now lives alone with her two dogs, “stuck in a holding pattern” as a middle-aged woman because she has trouble trusting people.
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