Poll of the Day > Bill Cosby sentenced to at least three years in state prison

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WastelandCowboy
09/25/18 3:06:51 PM
#1:


https://www.npr.org/2018/09/25/651065803/bill-cosby-sentenced-to-at-least-3-years-in-state-prison

Updated: September 25, 2:55 p.m. ET

Editor's note: This story contains a graphic description of sexual assault.

A judge has sentenced Bill Cosby to three to 10 years in Pennsylvania state prison, five months after a jury found the entertainer guilty of aggravated indecent assault. Cosby will serve at least three years behind bars, after which he would become eligible for supervised release. But there is no guarantee he would be released at that point.

Cosby's prison sentence completes the TV dad's stunning fall from groundbreaking cultural icon to convicted sex offender. Cosby, 81, is the first celebrity to be sent to prison in the #MeToo era.

"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," accuser Andrea Constand wrote in a five-page victim impact statement submitted to the court.

Now, "instead of looking back, I am looking forward to looking forward," she said. "I want to get to the place where the person I was meant to be gets a second chance."

In the courtroom, Constand sat flanked by her family and some of the about 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct stretching back decades.

"The victims cannot be unraped," Gianna Constand, Andrea Constand's mother, told the court on Monday during the first day of the sentencing hearing. "All we can do is hold the perpetrators accountable."

Cosby chose not to make a statement. He sat alone at the defense table, as his attorneys stressed his age and infirmity throughout the two-day hearing, pleading for a sentence of house arrest.

Cosby's wife, Camille, who stridently criticized the judge in the days leading up to the hearing, was not present. Cosby declined to address the court on his own behalf.

When his punishment was read, Cosby appeared not to react. His attorney, Joseph Green, asked that his client be freed on bail while he appeals the case. Judge Steven O'Neill initially denied that request, before recessing briefly to consider the question.

Prosecutors requested the maximum sentence under the law of five to ten years in state prison, and a $25,000 fine. They also asked the court to require Cosby to cover the cost of his two trials, which added up to about $420,000.

Prior to the sentencing, Judge Steven O'Neill designated Cosby a sexually violent predator.

When this decision was read, one of his accusers, model Janice Dickinson, seated in the third row, made a celebratory gesture in the air and hugged the person next to her.

Cosby's attorney requested bail pending appeal, which O'Neill denied.

Defense attorney Joseph Green argued Cosby is unlikely to reoffend based on his age.

"Eighty-one-year-old blind men who are not self-sufficient are not dangerous, except maybe to themselves," he said.

After becoming the first African-American actor to star in a lead role in the buddy-cop show I Spy in 1965, Cosby's acting career made him a household name. Ever since, he has been a cultural fixture, starring in films and television shows and putting out comedy albums for decades. His body of work developed his legacy as "America's Dad," in particular his depiction of obstetrician Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, which ran for eight seasons until 1992.

Those contributions to American popular culture have now been eclipsed by his conviction as well as allegations of sexual misconduct leveled by dozens of accusers, largely women with aspiring entertainment careers, stretching back to the mid-1960s.

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WastelandCowboy
09/25/18 3:07:12 PM
#2:


"In many respects, I think this was the precursor to the furor that ignited with the Harvey Weinstein allegations surfacing," said Deborah Tuerkheimer, law professor at Northwestern University.

In 2005, Constand, who was 32 years old at the time, reported to police in her native Ontario that Cosby had given her three blue pills and fondled her while she was incapacitated. Canadian police referred the case to authorities in Pennsylvania's Montgomery County. Then-District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to press charges. Constand then pursued a civil lawsuit against the entertainer that was settled for about $3.4 million.

In 2015 and at the request of The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed deposition testimony Cosby gave during that civil case in which he described obtaining quaaludes to give women before sex. That revelation set off scores of other women to step forward and say Cosby drugged and molested or sexually assaulted them.

The document also renewed interest in the district attorney's office to re-examine Constand's criminal case.

Days before the statute of limitations was set to expire in December 2015, prosecutors summoned reporters to Montgomery County to make a startling announcement: Cosby was being charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault over a more-than-a-decade-old incident.

In the 2 1/2 years that followed, Cosby's case went to trial twice in Norristown, Pa., not far from his estate where Constand says Cosby assaulted her.

The first jury deadlocked in 2017. A jury in the second trial convicted Cosby on all counts April 26, 2018.

Both times, Constand testified that during a visit to his house in 2004, Cosby gave her pills she believed were herbal supplements to help with stress she was having as she was considering a career change. When she took the pills, she was knocked unconscious. She told jurors that while on a couch in his home and in a haze, she felt him penetrating her with his fingers and using her hand to masturbate, as she was unable to fight back. "I was frozen," she told the jury.

After six days of deliberation at the 2017 trial, jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial. Prosecutors did not give up, though, deciding to put Cosby on trial a second time. In April 2018, Cosby faced a different jury and, in many ways, a whole new world.

For one, the #MeToo movement had been unleashed, toppling bad-behaving men whose abuse had previously been kept secret. And the judge allowed five women in addition to Constand to take the stand and confront the famous comedian to help illustrate Cosby's pattern of predatory behavior. That was four more women than the judge permitted during the first trial. Legal experts say those women helped bolster the credibility of Constand.

When the women took the witness stand, a pattern emerged. The women told the court that Cosby sought them out and gained their trust before arranging for private meetings, often under the guise of career advice or script coaching, at which Cosby would drug them and then sexually prey on them.

Among the five women who took the stand in the second trial was model Janice Dickinson, who, along with the other accuser witnesses, Cosby's lawyers attempted to paint as a fame-seeking liar who had fabricated stories to smear a famous person.

They also challenged accuser Janice Baker-Kinney's delayed accusation.

"You said words to the effect that, 'For 30 years, I didn't know I had been raped,' " said Cosby attorney Thomas Mesereau during cross-examination. "So, for 30 years, you didn't think anyone had sexually assaulted you?"

"It still takes me everything within my being to say the words 'I was raped,' because I still carry the guilt," responded Baker-Kinney.
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WastelandCowboy
09/25/18 3:07:51 PM
#3:


Throughout the proceedings, Cosby's legal team maintained the comedian's innocence, arguing that the encounter with Constand was consensual. In the first trial, Cosby's lawyers emphasized an alleged mutual romance between Cosby and Constand. With a retooled legal team in the second trial, Cosby's lawyers had a new approach: attempting to portray Constand as a "con artist" who had long planned to concoct a false allegation against Cosby in order to secure a multi-million-dollar payout.
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MICHALECOLE
09/25/18 3:12:09 PM
#4:


I hope Hannibal Burres is happy with himself

No really, I do
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pionear
09/25/18 3:20:53 PM
#5:


https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/3-poll-of-the-day/77039140#6

MICHALECOLE posted...
I hope Hannibal Burres is happy with himself

No really, I do


Well he was busted himself in MIA awhile ago...but hey, what happened happened and ultimately it's was Cosby's own fault.

But I will still probably watch the show since it was probably my favorite growing up, mostly only for the supporting cast.
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WastelandCowboy
09/25/18 3:27:08 PM
#6:


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SeahorseCpt89
09/26/18 9:43:15 AM
#7:


Wasnt he accused of over 70 assaults or something like that?

How many of those did he get convicted of? 3-10 years seems like he actually got off pretty easy all things considered.
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#8
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Jen0125
09/26/18 9:46:41 AM
#9:


SeahorseCpt89 posted...
Wasnt he accused of over 70 assaults or something like that?

How many of those did he get convicted of? 3-10 years seems like he actually got off pretty easy all things considered.


Accusations and things you can provide proof for are very different. I believe they only criminally charged him for 1 or 2 of the assaults he was accused of. So yeah, he's lucky these women were so intimidated that they waited so long.
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Mead
09/26/18 10:01:28 AM
#10:


Should be been sentenced at least 20 years ago
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If they drag you through the mud, it doesnt change whats in your blood
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henzler3
09/26/18 10:24:31 AM
#11:


we should of convicted him then but the fact is cosby won't make it one more year, insider source says bills health is really bad, and he is probably going to die in prison
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ernieforss
09/26/18 11:14:43 AM
#12:


my mom was so pissed that he's going to jail. I had to remind him that he raped women and she denied it. Then I told her what happened and we both agree it was rape. She still doesn't think he shouldn't go to jail.
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likehelly
09/26/18 11:18:00 AM
#13:


while im glad this happened, I don't think he should have went to jail.

he's old, too old, for that.
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Mead
09/26/18 11:19:47 AM
#14:


likehelly posted...
while im glad this happened, I don't think he should have went to jail.

he's old, too old, for that.


Then maybe he should have admitted what he did when he was younger
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#15
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argonautweakend
09/26/18 11:46:34 AM
#16:


It makes me laugh in a way how his "americas dad" persona was just a coverup for his years and years of abuse and rape. Ive heard other black comedians talk about how he would belittle them for their raunchier acts and turns out it was just virtue signaling to cover his own crimes.
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helIy
09/26/18 11:48:02 AM
#17:


Zangulus posted...

A) he hasnt gone anywhere yet.

gone.

Zangulus posted...
B) in no reality is a valid excuse for not going to jail.

it super kind of is though. there are other facilities he could have gone to. civil commitment places are literally just prison but not actual prison.
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Trancer Hunter
09/26/18 12:34:16 PM
#18:


He's still getting special treatment. Yes I understand otherwise he would be dead. But he still should be going to prison like everyone else including sharing a cell.
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Troll_Police_
09/26/18 12:36:35 PM
#19:


ernieforss posted...
my mom was so pissed that he's going to jail. I had to remind him that he raped women and she denied it. Then I told her what happened and we both agree it was rape. She still doesn't think he shouldn't go to jail.


this post was a fucking trainwreck.

i am legitimately unsure of what you were trying to say
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Revelation34
09/26/18 2:04:15 PM
#20:


argonautweakend posted...
It makes me laugh in a way how his "americas dad" persona was just a coverup for his years and years of abuse and rape. Ive heard other black comedians talk about how he would belittle them for their raunchier acts and turns out it was just virtue signaling to cover his own crimes.


Citation needed.
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argonautweakend
09/26/18 2:15:41 PM
#21:


It seems obvious to me he played up the americas dad image to take away from the fact he was a scumbag. But some comedians like eddie murphy have mentioned bill would call them talking about their acts and belittle them.
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Revelation34
09/26/18 2:16:05 PM
#22:


argonautweakend posted...
It seems obvious to me he played up the americas dad image to take away from the fact he was a scumbag. But some comedians like eddie murphy have mentioned bill would call them talking about their acts and belittle them.


So just an opinion then.
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Nightengale
09/26/18 2:19:24 PM
#23:


considering he is considered likely to re-offend the best outcome here is that he dies in jail
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ernieforss
09/26/18 2:25:26 PM
#24:


Troll_Police_ posted...
ernieforss posted...
my mom was so pissed that he's going to jail. I had to remind him that he raped women and she denied it. Then I told her what happened and we both agree it was rape. She still doesn't think he shouldn't go to jail.


this post was a fucking trainwreck.

i am legitimately unsure of what you were trying to say


my mom doesn't think he should go to jail even after we both agree that cosby raped women.
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argonautweakend
09/26/18 2:26:15 PM
#25:


Well i dont know for certain about his americas dad image, but it would have worked(and was) until there was just too many women to ignore. That part is opinion.

You can loom up the second part in the one eddie murphy special where he talks about it. I forget which one(though some quick googling would probably help)
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Troll_Police_
09/26/18 2:45:57 PM
#26:


ernieforss posted...
Troll_Police_ posted...
ernieforss posted...
my mom was so pissed that he's going to jail. I had to remind him that he raped women and she denied it. Then I told her what happened and we both agree it was rape. She still doesn't think he shouldn't go to jail.


this post was a fucking trainwreck.

i am legitimately unsure of what you were trying to say


my mom doesn't think he should go to jail even after we both agree that cosby raped women.


thank you for clarifying

your mom is a fucking dunce
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Give him what he wants then take what you want. Nobody is more vulnerable than in their moment of victory when you know whatever you do he will never let you go
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ClarkDuke
09/26/18 4:29:58 PM
#27:


ernieforss posted...
Troll_Police_ posted...
ernieforss posted...
my mom was so pissed that he's going to jail. I had to remind him that he raped women and she denied it. Then I told her what happened and we both agree it was rape. She still doesn't think he shouldn't go to jail.


this post was a fucking trainwreck.

i am legitimately unsure of what you were trying to say


my mom doesn't think he should go to jail even after we both agree that cosby raped women.

you should tell your mom, that makes her a rape enabler, ok?
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ernieforss
09/26/18 4:37:57 PM
#28:


oh I did.
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ClarkDuke
09/26/18 4:40:50 PM
#29:


ernieforss posted...
oh I did.

ouch, she's mean, ok?
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