his 60 accusers – thought they’d never see.
Fallen icon Bill Cosby’s three-to-ten-year prison sentence, delivered on September 24th, left some New Yorkers shocked and others relieved. He was found guilty of three counts of aggravated sexual assault on Andrea Constand, former director of the women’s basketball team at Temple University. Speculation had been that he might walk with probation and no time to serve, in consideration of his age and ill health. But the sentence delivered by Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill means that he will spend at minimum, three years behind bars. And his accusers are vowing to show up at that parole hearing and any that may come after.
“No one is above the law, and no one should be treated differently or disproportionately,” said Judge O’Neill in comments after the verdict.
Although his lawyers plan to appeal, Cosby went immediately to prison, where he will have to await any subsequent trial. He’ll undergo monthly counseling and register as a sexually violent predator, so that in the event he is someday released, neighbors and schools in his area will be aware of the nature of his conviction.
Cosby escaped a harsher sentence that his accusers say he deserves, because he faced only one of them, Constand, in court. She says he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2004. The statute of limitations had run out by only a few months for artist and activist Lili Bernard, who says Cosby raped her in the ‘90s while mentoring her for an appearance on The Cosby Show. She’s one of his more vocal rape/sexual assault accusers and expressed satisfaction with the sentence in an interview on Democracy Now! the next day.
