Arrest Warrant Issued For Bill Cosby Over 2004 Sexual Assault

By Mojisola Delano Last updated Dec 30, 2015

In this photo taken Nov. 6, 2014, entertainer Bill Cosby pauses during an interview about the upcoming exhibit, Conversations: African and African-American Artworks in Dialogue, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington. The Smithsonian Institution is mounting a major showcase of African-American art and African art together in a new exhibit featuring the extensive art collection of Bill and Camille Cosby. More than 60 rarely seen African-American artworks from the Cosby collection will join 100 pieces of African art at the National Museum of African Art. The exhibit Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue, opens Sunday and will be on view through early 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) — In this photo taken Nov. 6, 2014, entertainer Bill Cosby pauses during an interview about the upcoming exhibit, Conversations: African and African-American Artworks in Dialogue, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington. The Smithsonian Institution is mounting a major showcase of African-American art and African art together in a new exhibit featuring the extensive art collection of Bill and Camille Cosby. More than 60 rarely seen African-American artworks from the Cosby collection will join 100 pieces of African art at the National Museum of African Art. The exhibit Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue, opens Sunday and will be on view through early 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Renown Comedian Bill Cosby has been charged with aggravated indecent assault, a first class felony, over the alleged drugging and sexual assault of a woman at his Pennsylvania home in 2004, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office.

The victim, a former Temple University employee named Andrea Constand, was drugged with multiple pills and then assaulted her at his home. Constand had already denied multiple sexual advances by Cosby, District Attorney-elect Kevin Steele said at a Wednesday press conference.

A Pennsylvania district attorney declined to charge Cosby over the incident in 2005, according to the Associated Press. The case was reopened during the summer as new testimony was revealed during a civil suit against Cosby and similar allegations by other women came to light, Steele said. The statute of limitations on the case was set to run out in 2016.

“Reopening was not a question,” Steele said. “Reopening this case was our duty as law enforcement officers…We examined all the evidence and we made this determination because it was the right thing to do.”

In the past, Cosby has said that his relationship with Constand was consensual. However, Constand called Cosby a “narcissist” in court filings, according to People.

More than 50 women have accused Cosby of drugging or sexually assaulting them over the course of multiple decades. Cosby has denied the allegations and filed defamation lawsuits against several accusers.

Cosby is expected to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

-Time