New York—US comic Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault in Pennsylvania over an incident that took place in 2004, a prosecutor said Wednesday—the first criminal charges filed against the actor after dozens of women claimed abuse. “Mr. Cosby is charged with aggravated indecent assault. This is a felony,” Kevin Steele, assistant district attorney for the state’s Montgomery County, told reporters in Norristown, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Cosby, 78, was to be arraigned later Wednesday. If found guilty, the veteran television star could face up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. More than 50 women have already publicly claimed abuse by the pioneering African-American comedian, who attained his greatest fame for his role as the lovable family doctor and pater familias in the hit 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show.”
