Lawyers have high-profile roles in Cosby drama
NORRISTOWN » When the prosecution and defense teams enter a Montgomery County courtroom on Monday their time in the international spotlight reaches a crescendo as the celebrity trial of Bill Cosby gets under way.
While Cosby, 79, is the star of the legal drama about to unfold, first-term District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, who heads the prosecution team, and seasoned criminal defense lawyer Brian J. McMonagle, who leads the defense team, with decades of legal experience between them, will be at center stage during the entertainer’s sex assault trial.
The players in the widelyfollowed legal drama include:
THE PROSECUTION Kevin R. Steele
Steele, 50, of Lower Merion, was elected district attorney in November 2015 and was sworn-in on Jan. 4, 2016, to oversee an office that investigates or prosecutes about 9,000 cases annually. It was Steele, as first assistant district attorney, who announced the sex assault charges against Cosby on Dec. 30, 2015, before the 12-year statute of limitations to file charges expired.
Steele, a graduate of The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University who also received a Master of Laws Degree in Trial Advocacy from Temple University Law School, joined the district attorney’s office in 1995 after a two-year stint with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office. In Montgomery County, Steele served as an assistant prosecutor, captain of the narcotics unit and chief of the trials division before being appointed first assistant in 2008.
Steele, who has taught as an adjunct professor at Cabrini College since 2004 and is a married father of three children, prosecuted several high-profile cases, including that of Raghunandan Yandamuri, 30, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by a jury in 2014 in connection with the Oct. 22, 2012, deaths of 61-year-old Satyavathi Venna and her 10-month-old granddaughter, Saanvi.
Steele also prosecuted former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, the first Democrat and the first woman ever elected attorney general, who was convicted during an August 2016 trial of charges of perjury, obstructing administration of law, official oppression, false swearing and conspiracy.
M. Stewart Ryan
Ryan, 30, joined the district attorney’s office in 2012. Since then, he has served in all divisions, including pretrials, juvenile, appeals and trials. As part of the trials division, he was a member of the firearms unit and the sex crimes unit before being promoted to the captain of the sex crimes unit in February 2015.
Ryan, who earned his law degree from Widener University Delaware Law School in 2012, was part of the team that prosecuted Kane and Yandamuri. Ryan also prosecuted well-known Norristown lawyer Vincent Cirillo Jr., who was convicted of raping a female client and is serving a 10- to-20-year prison term.
Kristen M. Feden
Feden, 34, joined the district attorney’s office in June 2012, after having served as the law clerk for county Judge Garrett D. Page. Since joining the office, Feden, who earned her law degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2009, has served as a prosecutor on various units including most recently as a member of the sex crimes unit before her promotion in February 2017 to captain of the domestic violence unit.
Prior to law school, Feden worked as a financial analyst for Bloomberg, L.P. in New York, according to her biography.
Feden was part of the team that prosecuted Yandamuri. Feden also prosecuted Charles Meredith IV, a former tennis coach at a Delaware County school who was convicted of having improper contact with a teenage girl he coached by sending her inappropriate text messages.
THE DEFENSE Brian J. McMonagle
McMonagle, 58, who is leading Cosby’s defense team, began his career in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office where he was one of the youngest lawyers to prosecute high-profile homicide cases, according to a biography on the website of the law firm McMonagle, Perri, McHugh & Mischak.
According to his website, McMonagle’s clients have included “movie and television personalities, professional athletes, high ranking law enforcement officials, politicians, CEOs, physicians, clergy and attorneys.”
Locally, McMonagle, a graduate of Capital University Law School, made headlines when he represented Robert Kerns, a former chairman of the county GOP Committee, who in November 2013 was arrested and charged by county prosecutors with allegedly drugging and raping a woman after a work party.
However, in March 2014, McMonagle enlisted two experts to review the victim’s blood reports and found they had been read incorrectly by prosecutors. The reports indicated there had been no trace of drugs in the victim’s blood, whereas prosecutors initially alleged the report indicated the victim was drugged.
The district attorney’s office subsequently withdrew the charges against Kerns in April 2014 and forwarded the investigation to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General which then handled charges against Kerns.
In May 2014, the lead charges of rape and sexual assault were dismissed against Kerns, who subsequently pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of indecent assault. By pleading no contest, Kerns did not admit to the assault, but acknowledged that state prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.
Angela C. Agrusa
Agrusa, who entered Cosby’s criminal defense case in October 2016, is a partner in the Law Firm of Liner, LLP, in Los Angeles. According to Agrusa’s website, “Angela tried high-stakes complex commercial, class action and civil cases on behalf of international brands, major companies and prominent individuals.
Agrusa, a graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, previously represented Cosby in his civil trials.
“Angela’s clients include Fortune 500, public and privately held companies, municipalities and prominent public figures in a broad range of industries, including entertainment, media, consumer products and services, advertising and hospitality,” according to her website.