At a sentencing hearing Thursday morning that was frequently interrupted by Bill Gene Hobbs mercilessly heckling his own victims, the convicted sexual assault suspect received a jail sentence totaling five and a half years.
The wheels of justice probably could have moved more quickly and efficiently in the prosecution of serial stalker, groper, and sexual harasser Bill Gene Hobbs. But on Thursday morning, this chapter in his creepy saga ended in a way that will hopefully bring his many victims some closure.
The public at large first became aware of Hobbs’s disturbing patterns in July 2021 when we learned that Hobbs had stalked and grabbed a 15-year-old girl in West Portal, and had previously been accused of stripping his clothes off and chasing a woman in Glen Canyon.
Those revelations brought more San Francisco women out of the woodwork to describe their own assault incidents that Hobbs instigated, leading to his eventual arrest last October. Hobbs went to trial for sexual assault last month, where a jury found him guilty on nine counts.
And on Thursday morning, the Chronicle reports Hobbs was sentenced to five and a half years behind bars by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman.
“Everybody in this town, man or woman, especially women, needs to feel safe,” Dorfman said at the sentencing, according to the SF Standard. “This is not a case where Mr. Hobbs inappropriately touched one or two or three women. The jury returned verdicts as to nine separate cases.”
The sentence is fairly complicated, and Hobbs will get credit for more than a year of time already served. But he still gets a two and a half year sentence in SF County Jail, and then state prison for three years on his felony charge.
Two of his victims spoke at the sentencing, and Hobbs frequently and cruelly interrupted them with outbursts.
One of his victims, identified as Karina, described how Hobbs groped her while she was jogging, leaving her with extended periods of panic attacks and night terrors. “The assault I experienced has completely changed my life,” she said at the sentencing.
To which Hobbs snapped back, “Wow, get over yourself,” per the SF Standard.
At his trial in May, Hobbs was convicted on one felony count of false imprisonment, and eight misdemeanor counts of assault, battery, sexual battery. He will also be forced to register as a sex offender.
Related: Accused Serial Groper Bill Gene Hobbs Found Guilty On Nine Counts [SFist]
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