Washington, Dec 30 (EFE).– A court set bail of $1 million for U.S. comedian Bill Cosby on Wednesday after charges were filed against him for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in 2004.

Cosby appeared briefly in a courtroom in Elkins Park, a suburb of Philadelphia, after the District Attorney’s Office charged him with “aggravated” sexual assault.

The actor, who had to surrender his passport, paid 10 percent of the full bail amount in cash, a move that will allow him to remain at liberty while he awaits trial.

The judge set a preliminary hearing in the case for Jan. 14.

After appearing in court for about 15 minutes, amid a huge press presence, the comic traveled in a black SUV escorted by a police vehicle to a nearby police station to be processed and to provide his fingerprints.

Cosby went to court hours after the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office filed charges against him in the case of Andrea Constand, a former employee of Temple University, who claims that the comic drugged and raped her at his mansion in Philadelphia.

This is the first time that criminal charges have been brought against the 78-year-old Cosby by any of the dozens of women who have accused him of sexual abuse, allegations that he has denied but which have destroyed his heretofore-beloved image as “America’s Dad.”

At a press conference, Montgomery County District Attorney-elect Kevin Steele said that the accusation is based on the investigation into a “relationship” Cosby had with the victim starting with Constand’s work for the Temple women’s basketball team.

According to Steele, the now-42-year-old woman was at Cosby’s home, where he urged her to take unknown pills and drink wine. Once she was unconscious from the drugs, she claims he assaulted her.

Cosby was a mainstay of television comedy in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

His signature series, “The Cosby Show,” which aired from 1984 to 1992, had over 70 million weekly viewers at the peak of its popularity. EFE