Bill Cosby , the once-beloved comedian and actor whose sitcom The Cosby Show was the biggest show of the '80s, has been sentenced to three to ten years in Pennsylvania state prison for the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand, the New York Times reports. In April, Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and assaulting Constand, a Temple University employee. Prosecutors had been seeking the maximum sentence of five to ten years. Judge Steven T. O'Neill, who had convicted Cosby, ruled earlier in the day that Cosby qualified as a "sexually violent predator" under Pennsylvania law, which would place conditions on him should he be released from prison, including registering as a sex offender, undergoing mandatory counseling and notifying the community of his sex offender status. "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." Sixty women have accused Cosby, 81, of rape and sexual assault over a span of time ranging from 1965 to 2008. Nine of those women as well as Constand were present at the sentencing. Cosby's wife Camille was not. The judge denied him bail and sent him to prison. He was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Cosby did not make any statement before sentencing. His lawyers plan to appeal his conviction. Cosby is the first powerful man convicted of sex crimes in the #MeToo era.
