"The charge by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office came as no surprise, filed 12 years after the alleged incident and coming on the heels of a hotly contested election for this county's DA during which this case was made the focal point," Cosby's attorneys said in a statement released after his arraignment Wednesday. "Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law."

Cosby, whose legacy as a comedian has been tarnished by multiple accusations of sexual assault , faces three felony charges of aggravated indecent assault in the case,which is tied to a 2004 accusation in Montgomery County.

Looking frail in a gray sweater and carrying a cane, he walked arm and arm with attorneys into a courthouse there Wednesday and appeared to have difficulty seeing as he was guided to a courtroom seat.

The judge set his bail at $1 million and ordered him to surrender his passport. Cosby did not enter a plea. Asked whether he understood the proceedings, Cosby responded, "yes," in a booming voice with a smile on his face.

Following the brief arraignment, Cosby went to the police station in Cheltenham Township, where he was booked per protocol. Cosby posted bail and left the police station.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office released a booking photo of Bill Cosby after Wednesday's proceedings.

The TV legend is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand when she visited his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. A probable cause affidavit filed by investigators this week alleges that Cosby "sought to incapacitate" Constand by giving her a mix of pills and wine that sent her slipping in and out of consciousness and left her unable to consent to sexual activity.

Constand was the first person to publicly allege sexual assault by Cosby. The charges filed Wednesday are the first criminal charges levied against him since the allegations arose. Cosby has steadfastly denied wrongdoing.

In 2005, prosecutors declined to seek charges against Cosby in the case, citing insufficient evidence.

Montgomery County prosecutor Kevin Steele, who was elected to his post last month, said Wednesday that prosecutors looked at all the evidence in the 2004 allegations and decided to charge Cosby "because it was the right thing to do."

New evidence

Officials reopened the criminal investigation into Cosby in Montgomery County after new evidence came to light, Steele said.

That evidence, Steele said, came from court documents related to a civil suit that Constand filed against Cosby after prosecutors declined to seek charges against the comedian.

Constand settled the civil case against Cosby in 2006.

This past July, nine years after the civil case was settled, a judge decided to unseal Cosby's deposition in that case in response to a motion by the media.

In it, Cosby admits he had sexual relationships with at least five women outside his marriage, gave prescription sedatives to women he wanted to have sex with and tried to hide affairs from his wife.

When the deposition was released and "we learned about allegations from other victims under similar circumstances, reopening this case was not a question," Steele said. "Rather, reopening this case was our duty as law enforcement officers with a sworn obligation to uphold our constitutions and to uphold the law."

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Prosecutors re-examined the original investigation in light of the new documents, reinterviewed some witnesses and decided to pursue the criminal charge.

"The evidence shows Mr. Cosby established a relationship with the victim after meeting her through her work associated with Temple University's women's basketball program," Steele said.

Constand considered Cosby a friend and mentor, but on two occasions rejected advances by Cosby, he said.

"On the evening in question, Mr. Cosby urged her to take pills that he provided to her, and to drink wine, the effect of which rendered her unable to move or respond to his advances, and he committed aggravated indecent assault upon her," Steele said.

Pennsylvania law has a 12-year statute of limitations for sexual assault cases, a window that closes early next year.

Some unsealed documents from the civil suit revealed that Cosby has admitted to getting prescription Quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with.

Asked whether investigators believe Cosby used Quaaludes in the 2004 case for which he is being charged, Steele said that pills were provided.

"There's inconsistencies on [what pills they were]. There was also wine provided," the prosecutor said. He said the woman has said she was "frozen, paralyzed, unable to move," so she was therefore unable to consent to sexual activity.

'The best Christmas present'

The 78-year-old Cosby has been dogged by allegations of sexual assault. At least 50 women have come forward to publicly accuse him of assaulting them over four decades, most saying he drugged them first.

Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? More than 50 women have spoken out to various media outlets about allegations of sexual misconduct by Bill Cosby. Here are 25, in chronological order, who have spoken with CNN, spoken on camera about their allegations or been the subject of responses from Cosby's attorneys. Read more on the allegations and Cosby's denials. Hide Caption 1 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? In January 2004, Andrea Constand, then a 31-year-old staffer for the women's basketball team at Temple University -- Cosby's alma mater -- was at the comedian's Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, home when Cosby provided her medication that made her dizzy, she alleged the next year. She later woke up to find her bra undone and her clothes in disarray, she further alleged to police in her home province of Ontario, Canada, in January 2005. She was the first person to publicly allege sexual assault by Cosby. The comedian settled a civil suit with Constand that alleged 13 Jane Does had similar stories of sexual abuse. On December 30, 2015, Cosby was charged with sexual assault in relation to the 2004 accusation, Costand's attorney Dolores Troiani confirmed to CNN. That ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked in June 2017, but prosecutors immediately announced they would retry the case. Hide Caption 2 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Janice Dickinson alleged she and Cosby had dinner in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 1982 and he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill she believed was for menstrual cramps. "The last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain," she told "Entertainment Tonight." Cosby's attorney said in a statement that Dickinson's allegation was a "fabricated lie" that contradicted what she wrote in her autobiography and what she said during a 2002 New York Observer interview. Hide Caption 3 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Heidi Thomas says she met Cosby in 1984 and visited him at a house outside of Reno, Nevada, for "coaching." At the time, she was a 24-year-old aspiring actress and model known as Heidi Johnson. Thomas says Cosby offered her a glass of Chablis, and she later woke up with Cosby next to her in bed, naked, and "forcing himself in my mouth." A representative of Cosby did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thomas' allegation. Hide Caption 4 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Cindra Ladd, longtime wife of Oscar-winning film producer Alan Ladd Jr., alleges Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her in 1969 when she was single and 21. Cosby's representatives did not respond to CNN's repeated requests for comment. Hide Caption 5 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? The now-wife of "The Incredible Hulk" star Lou Ferrigno, Carla Ferrigno, told CNN that Cosby forcibly kissed her at his home in 1967. Carla Ferrigno said she told her husband, whom she married in 1980, about the incident about five years ago and he advised her to stay silent. Hide Caption 6 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Kristina Ruehli was a secretary for a talent agency in 1965 that had Cosby as a client. She said she was invited to a party to celebrate a taping of "Hollywood Palace." Ruehli said she and an actress were the only attendees at the party. She said she became unconscious after consuming drinks and later woke up to find Cosby attempting to force her mouth onto his pubic area. She said she pulled away to vomit and drove herself home. It was the last time she would see Cosby, she told CNN. Hide Caption 7 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Linda Brown was a 21-year-old model in 1969 when, she alleges, Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in Canada near her hometown. She says she was introduced to the comedian by her then-manager, had dinner with Cosby and was later served a soft drink by Cosby at an apartment. "I took a sip and blacked out," Brown said at a press conference with her attorney in February. "When I awakened, I was naked in the bed beside him." Hide Caption 8 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Joan Tarshis was a 19-year-old actress in 1969 when, she said, she met Cosby in Los Angeles. The two became friendly. One night after taping his sitcom, he invited her back to his bungalow and fixed her a "redeye" (a Bloody Mary topped with beer), she alleged. "The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," she told Hollywood Elsewhere. "I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one." It was the first of two similar incidents, said Tarshis, who is now a journalist and publicist. Hide Caption 9 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Linda Joy Traitz said Cosby offered her a ride home while she was working as a waitress at a restaurant in Los Angeles that he co-owned in 1969. On the way, they detoured to the beach. They parked and he offered her drugs "to relax," she alleged. After refusing "he kept offering me the pills," she alleged, and it made her feel uncomfortable. She claimed he then groped her chest, pushing her down in the seat and toward the door, and tried to lie on top of her. She got out of the car and ran, she said. She added that she was "absolutely not" raped. He tried to calm her, she said, then drove her home in silence. Traitz has a criminal record in Florida and spent time in prison on a conviction for drug trafficking, according to state records. Cosby's lawyer passed on her lengthy rap sheet. Traitz spoke openly about her record to CNN. Hide Caption 10 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Playboy bunny Victoria Valentino said her friend Francesca Emerson first introduced her to Cosby hoping to help her get work on his show "I Spy" in the late '60s. Valentino said after an interview in his trailer, Cosby invited her and a different friend to dinner, where they drank red wine and Cosby offered her pills to "cheer up," she said. She said she felt "stoned," slurring her words. They then went with him to what she described as a "ballers pad," an office-like space in an apartment building, with two loveseats and no working phone. Valentino said she was feeling "totally out of it" when she saw Cosby attempting to advance on her passed-out friend. She said she began reaching out to Cosby to pull him off her friend when he pushed her down, first pushing himself near her mouth, before turning her around and raping her. Hide Caption 11 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Famed model Beverly Johnson alleged that Bill Cosby drugged her in the 1980s at his Manhattan brownstone, where she'd gone to rehearse lines. During the meeting, Johnson said, Cosby was "very insistent" she drink a cup of cappuccino he had made for her. "After that second sip, I knew I had been drugged," she alleged. "It was very powerful, it came on very quickly." Johnson said she then confronted and cursed at the comedian, claiming, "I wanted him to know he had drugged me." She alleged that Cosby got angry, grabbed her, took her outside and flagged down a taxi for her. Cosby's attorney didn't immediately return a CNN call for comment on Johnson's allegation, which she first made in a Vanity Fair article. Hide Caption 12 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? In 1970, Tamara Green was an aspiring model in her early 20s. She alleged an incident occurred during a working lunch with Cosby and others. Green told Matt Lauer of the "Today" show that at the lunch, she was suffering from the flu and Cosby "produced two capsules." She said they made her feel "great" at first, but then left her "almost literally face down on the table of this restaurant." Cosby took her to her apartment and started "groping me and kissing me and touching me and handling me and you know, taking off my clothes," Green said. Green further detailed her allegations in a defamation lawsuit against Cosby filed in December. Hide Caption 13 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Judy Huth has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress during an incident at the Playboy Mansion, according to court documents. The alleged sexual assault took place in 1974 when Huth was 15 years old. According to court documents, Huth and a 16-year-old friend met with Cosby and eventually went to the Playboy Mansion with him. "He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent," according to the documents. Cosby's lawyer said Huth's claims are "absolutely false" and he accused her of engaging in extortion after Cosby rejected her "outrageous demand for money in order not to make her allegations public." Hide Caption 14 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? P.J. Masten was a Playboy bunny in her 20s and met Cosby while working as a server at one of Playboy's establishments. He asked her to lunch one afternoon in Chicago, then later called to invite her to dinner, she told CNN. Before the dinner, attended by four other men at the Whitehall Hotel, Masten said, Cosby poured her a drink. "And the next thing I know, it was 4 o'clock in the morning," Masten said. "I woke up in a bed naked, bruised. He was lying next to me, and I slithered out of the bed, my clothes all over the floor. ... I got myself together, I went downstairs, I got in a cab and I went home." Masten recalled "hurting really bad." As to why, she alleged: "There were bruise marks all over me. I knew I was raped by him." Hide Caption 15 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? In a statement released through lawyer Gloria Allred's office, Helen Hayes alleged that Cosby followed her and two friends "around all day" at a summer 1973 celebrity tennis tournament in Pebble Beach, California, hosted by actor Clint Eastwood. Hayes claimed she and her friends tried to avoid Cosby, but he caught up with them in a restaurant, "approached me from behind and reached over my shoulder and grabbed my right breast." "I was stunned and angry, because he had no right to do that and I did not know why he would behave that way," Hayes said. "His behavior was like that of a predator." Hide Caption 16 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Louisa Moritz, seen here in a 1971 episode of "Love, American Style," told TMZ she was in the green room of the "The Tonight Show" at NBC in New York when Cosby paid her a visit. He offered to turn her into a "major star through his direction." Then he forced himself on her, she alleged. Hide Caption 17 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Donna Motsinger, 73, one of the Jane Does in the civil suit with Constand, said she met Cosby while working in a restaurant in Sausalito, California. According to Motsinger, Cosby invited her to join him for his show and she accepted. On the way, they stopped for gas and had a drink. After becoming ill, Motsinger said Cosby gave her what she thought was an aspirin. "After that there was some conversation and laughing and stuff, but then the next thing I remember ... he's next to me, he's got his hands on me and I look up I see the lights of the city. I could see it clear as a bell in my mind right now, the lights of the city coming back and it was all blurry, kind of the lights, and I passed out again," she said. Hide Caption 18 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Florida nurse Therese Serignese, 57, told ABC's "20/20" that she was a 19-year-old model visiting Las Vegas when Cosby handed her pills in a private dressing room after a performance. "Take these," Cosby told her, according to Serignese. After consuming the pills, she remembered "feeling drugged, and I was kind of leaning forward, and he was behind me having sex with me. And I -- I remember it because it was not good." Hide Caption 19 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Jewel Allison was a model and aspiring actress in her late 20s when she met Cosby in the late 1980s. She said he offered to help her, inviting her to his home. When she arrived, no one else was there besides Cosby, Allison said. At one point, after taking a few sips of wine, she began to feel "out of it." "I realized that something sexual was going on, but I was unable to stop it," Allison told CNN. Hide Caption 20 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Barbara Bowman was a 17-year-old model and actress who met Cosby in Denver in 1985. Bowman told Newsweek that Cosby visited her numerous times, giving her acting lessons and "flying me around to major cities to events." After she turned 18, Cosby "assaulted (me) a number of times," she said. In an incident in New York, Bowman "had one glass of wine and then I blacked out. I woke up throwing up in the toilet. ... I was wearing a white T-shirt that wasn't mine, and he was in a white robe." Hide Caption 21 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Lise-Lotte Lublin was a 23-year-old model in 1989 when, she alleges, Cosby gave her two shots of alcohol that caused her to black out in the Elvis suite of the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Her next memory was waking up at home, unable to remember what happened in the interim, she says. Hide Caption 22 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Identifying herself only by a first name during a news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred, Chelan said she was a 17-year-old aspiring model who worked at the Las Vegas Hilton when her father's wife sent pictures of her to Cosby. She said Cosby arranged to meet her at the Vegas Hilton "to introduce me to someone from the Ford modeling agency." During that meeting, she said, Cosby gave her "a blue pill, which he said was an antihistamine, with a double shot of Amaretto." She alleged that Cosby lay down next to her on the bed and began touching her sexually and grunting. Hide Caption 23 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Helen Gumpel, a model and actress known as Helen Selby professionally, appeared in a bit part in a late-1980s "Cosby Show" episode. A short time later, her agent got a call that Cosby wanted to meet with her. In a statement, Gumpel said that, after Cosby hugged and kissed her in front of onlookers at a New York studio, she was asked back to his dressing room. There, she found Cosby "wearing a loosely tied robe" and then -- with the robe still on -- he put "his crotch area in my face," Gumpel alleged. The comedian touched her shoulders then tried repeatedly to get Gumpel to have a drink he'd made, she said. After her refusals, Gumpel said, "Cosby turned his back to me and walked to the door. Cosby looked at me and his face clouded up, as if he was frustrated and angry, and he told me to leave." Hide Caption 24 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Beth Ferrier told media outlets in 2005 that she met Cosby in Denver in the mid-'80s. He mentored her for a time, but one night, she said, he gave her a drugged cappuccino. "I woke up in my car in the parking lot with my clothes all a mess," she said. "I wondered, I still wonder, 'What did he do with me? Why was my bra unhooked?'" The two later conducted an "on-and-off consensual affair" that lasted several years, she alleged to People magazine. "He kept luring me in," Ferrier told the magazine. "I felt like I couldn't say no." At the time, Cosby's publicist told People he had no comment. Hide Caption 25 of 26 Photos: Who are Cosby's accusers? Chloe Goins told the Los Angeles Police Department on January 14 that Cosby sexually assaulted her in 2008 during a party at the Playboy Mansion, when she was 18. Spencer Kuvin, Goins' attorney, said his client may be the first accuser to have a case that falls within the statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges. Cobsy's lawyer, Martin Singer, denied the accusation and said the comedian was not in California on August 8, 2008, the night of the "Midsummer Night's Party." Hide Caption 26 of 26

Formal accusations date back at least 10 years, when Constand went to police with her complaint. Cosby has maintained his innocence and filed lawsuits accusing his accusers of defamation.

Wednesday's criminal charges quickly caught the attention of others who have accused the entertainer.

"For many of my 29 clients, who allege they are victims of Bill Cosby, seeing him criminally charged and having to face a trial is the best Christmas present they've received," attorney Gloria Allred told reporters.

Kaya Thompson, a former extra on "The Cosby Show" who is among his accusers, said she felt "shock and glee combined" when her father told her about the charges.

"Prayers answered," she told CNN's Don Lemon.

Now she's hoping the man she once saw as an icon will be honest.

"I'd like him to own up. ... But this is now in the hands of a higher power," she said.

"The women in general that have been assaulted and abused as they allege, they feel some sense of vindication that there might be a prosecution of Mr. Cosby and he might be brought to justice," said attorney Joseph Cammarata, who represents seven of the accusers.

Allegations gain momentum

Cosby's reputation as a comic, beloved TV dad, philanthropist and education advocate appeared unaffected by the allegations before public sentiment took a turn in late 2014.

Comedian Hannibal Buress has been credited as the one who spotlighted the accusations. In October 2014, a video of a standup routine in which he called Cosby a "rapist" went viral, and soon after, women started coming forward with claims that they were drugged and assaulted by the TV legend.

In interviews, Buress said his intention was not to "out" Cosby, but to make a joke about Cosby's alleged hypocrisy. Cosby created an image for himself as a crusader for high moral standards, Buress said in his routine, while facing accusations of rape.

Cosby filed a countersuit this month against seven women who had sued him for defamation after he claimed their accusations of sexual assault were untrue. Cosby said the women's accusations hurt his reputation so much that plans for a new family comedy on NBC were derailed.