Cosby’s new defense team includes Michael Jackson lawyer
NORRISTOWN » Entertainer Bill Cosby has turned to a famous Hollywood lawyer who has represented pop stars and actors at highprofile trials to lead his defense team when his sex assault retrial gets under way in Montgomery County Court.
Thomas Mesereau, of Los Angeles, who successfully represented singer Michael Jackson on molestation charges in 2004, was retained to represent Cosby at his retrial on sexual assault charges, according to Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt. Shortly after Wyatt announced Mesereau’s hiring, Cosby confirmed his selection of a new legal team via Twitter.
In a statement, Wyatt added “no interviews will be entertained at this present time.”
In addition to Mesereau, Cosby’s new legal team includes Samuel W. Silver, of Philadelphia, and Kathleen Bliss of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The new lawyers officially entered their appearances in the case Tuesday, when county Judge Steven T. O’Neill held a pretrial hearing to consider the requests of Cosby’s current lawyers, Brian J. McMonagle, of Philadelphia, and Angela C. Agrusa, of Los Angeles, to withdraw from the case.
McMonagle and Agrusa represented Cosby at a June trial that ended in a mistrial. After hearing five days of testimony at the trial in June, a jury of seven men and five women selected in Allegheny County told a judge it was hopelessly deadlocked “on all counts” after deliberating more than 52 hours over six days.
O’Neill declared a mistrial and District Attorney Kevin R. Steele immediately informed the judge he would retry Cosby. O’Neill scheduled the retrial for Nov. 6. It’s unlikely, given Cosby’s selection of a new defense team, that Nov. 6 retrial date is realistic.
William Henry Cosby Jr., as his name appears on charging documents, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault in connection with allegations he had inappropriate sexual contact with Andrea Constand, a former Temple University athletic department employee, at his Cheltenham home after plying her with blue pills and wine sometime between midJanuary and mid-February 2004. Cosby, 80, maintains his contact with Constand was consensual.
Cosby remains free on 10 percent of $1 million bail, pending the retrial. Cosby faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
According to the Mesereau Law Group’s web site, it “is dedicated to serving its very select clientele.” Mesereau is best known for representing the late Michael Jackson at a 2004 California trial at which Jackson was acquitted of all child molestation charges. Mesereau’s other celebrity clients have included actor Robert Blake and boxer Mike Tyson, according to Mesereau’s web site.
Silver, a partner with the Schnader law firm in Philadelphia, previously represented U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah who was convicted of federal corruption charges in June 2016 and is serving a 10-year prison term. Silver, an adjunct faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania, also represented former Penn State President Graham Spanier at his child endangerment trial earlier this year.
Bliss, according to her biography, is a former federal prosecutor turned defense lawyer who has tried more than 50 federal criminal jury trials during her career. Bliss has prosecuted violent street gangs and white supremacist groups and as a defense lawyer obtained acquittals in armed bank robbery and assault cases, according to a biography included on her web site.
During Cosby’s June trial, prosecutors alleged Cosby was a trusted friend and mentor who took advantage of a woman in a “vulnerable state,” plied Constand with “three blue pills” and sexually assaulted her at his Cheltenham mansion in mid-January 2004.
Constand, 44, of Ontario, Canada, testified over two days that after taking the blue pills she began slurring her words and became “frozen” or paralyzed and was unable to fight off Cosby’s sexual advances. Constand claimed Cosby placed her on a couch, touched her breasts, forced her to touch his penis and performed digital penetration all without her consent.
But McMonagle and Agrusa argued Cosby was the victim of false accusations and that the entertainer and Constand had a “romantic relationship” and consensual sexual contact during the 2004 incident. At one point during the trial, McMonagle stood beside Cosby and suggested to jurors that while Cosby may have been an unfaithful husband, that didn’t make him a criminal.
The 11-day trial came at a high cost for the county. When county officials completed their calculation of the Cosby trial expenses last month, they indicated the cost of the trial reached $219,100. The trial that began June 5 was the highestprofile case to ever play out in a county courtroom and attracted worldwide attention.