Bill Cosby denied parole after refusing to participate in sex offender programs in Pennsylvania prison

Bill Cosby won’t be paroled this year after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison in Pennsylvania.

The 83-year-old Cosby has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence. This is the first year he was eligible for parole under the three- to 10-year sentence handed down after his 2018 conviction.

Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt called the decision “appalling” and said Cosby “vehemently proclaims his innocence.”

Cosby meanwhile hopes the state Supreme Court, which heard his appeal in December, will reverse his conviction in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. Cosby’s lawyers say the trial was flawed because five other accusers were allowed to testify to support the sexual assault complaint filed by a former Temple University basketball team manager. They also say the judge should not have let the jury hear Cosby’s damaging testimony from an accuser's related civil suit.

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Cosby is serving his sentence at SCI-Phoenix in Montgomery County.

Cosby broke racial barriers in Hollywood in the 1960s and had a top-ranked sitcom, The Cosby Show, on television from 1984 to 1992.