How Bill Cosby Ultimately Sealed His Own Fate

For nearly 12 years, comedian Bill Cosby had dodged criminal charges for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in his Pennsylvania home in 2004.

He tried to make it go away himself in 2005, before the police got involved, but Constand went to the police anyway.

They investigated, but the then-prosecutor declined to bring charges.

A civil lawsuit Constrand then filed against Cosby was settled under seal in 2006, with few of the details becoming public.

And there things remained for nine years, until the number of women going public with decades-old stories of Cosby drugging and sexually assaulting them became overwhelming. With the allegations against Cosby mounting, the Associated Press sought access to the sealed records in Constand's civil suit, and in July of this year, a federal judge ordered their release.

The case documents contained some of the most damning evidence against Cosby, in his own words. It prompted renewed interest in the case by a new local prosecutor in the suburban Philadelphia community where Cosby lives.

The timeline of how the case almost went away forever, then came roaring back to life, was laid out in a police affidavit made public Wednesday along with the first criminal charges against the iconic entertainer.