Bill Cosby loses appeal of sexual assault conviction

A panel of three appellate judges on Tuesday rejected Bill Cosby’s appeal of his 2018 sexual assault conviction, upholding a verdict that represents one of the most high-profile convictions of the #MeToo era.

The judges in the Pennsylvania Superior Court voted unanimously against Cosby’s appeal, rejecting his lawyers’ arguments that Cosby had been denied a fair trial when he was convicted last year of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004 after giving her some pills.

Cosby, 82, is serving a 3-to-10-year sentence at SCI Phoenix, a maximum-security facility outside Philadelphia. He had filed a formal appeal to his sexual assault conviction in June, arguing that he had been improperly convicted when the judge presiding at his trial allowed into evidence the testimony of five women who, like Constand, said Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted them.