PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby has hired Michael Jackson’s former lawyer to represent him at his November retrial on sexual-assault charges in Pennsylvania.
FILE – In this June 17, 2017 file photo, Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. Cosby’s spokesman announced Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, that Cosby has hired Michael Jackson’s former lawyer, Tom Mesereau, to represent him at his November retrial on sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
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.
Mesereau won an acquittal in Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial. He also has represented boxer Mike Tyson, rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and a Playboy bunny.
FILE – In a May 24, 2017 file photo, Tom Mesereau, attorney for model and Playboy bunny Danielle “Dani” Mathers, talks to reporters outside Los Angeles County Superior Court. Bill Cosby’s spokesman announced Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, that Cosby has hired Mesereau,, Michael Jackson’s former lawyer, to represent him at his November retrial on sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
Mesereau will be joined by former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss and Sam Silver, who represented now-imprisoned former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (SHAW’-kah fa-TAH’) in a corruption case.
Cosby’s first trial on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004 ended in a hung jury.
___
This story has been corrected to show Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial was in 2005, not 2004.