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Bill Cosby has hired Michael Jackson’s former lawyer to represent him at his November retrial on sexual-assault charges in Pennsylvania.
Bill Cosby's former defense attorneys, Angela Agrusa and Brian McMonagle arriving at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania on June 14, 2017. /AFP Photo
Cosby’s spokesman announced Monday, the 80-year-old comedian is bringing in Tom Mesereau to lead a retooled defense team. Lawyers from the first trial in June had said they wanted off the case.
Tom Mesereau, one of the three lawyers named as forming Cosby's new legal team, is best known for helping to secure an acquittal for Jackson in the pop star's 2005 child molestation trial in California.
Cosby, 80 years old, was long beloved by US television audiences for his family-friendly style of comedy, before dozens of women came forward to accuse him of a series of sexual assaults dating back to the 1960s.
He is due to be retried beginning November 6 on charges of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former administrator at his alma mater Temple University, at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.
Cosby denies wrongdoing, saying any sexual contact he may have had with his accusers was consensual.
Besides Mesereau, lawyers Kathleen Bliss and Sam Silver will represent Cosby, according to a statement by Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's publicist.
(REUTERS)
