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Bill Cosby Fires His Entire Legal Team Ahead Of Sentencing For Sexual Assault Conviction
The disgraced star has hired one new defense attorney who is experienced with cases involving sex crimes.
Bill Cosby has fired his entire seven-person legal team less than three months after being convicted of sexual assault.
The disgraced star has hired one new defense attorney who is experienced with cases involving sex crimes, according to his spokesman Andrew Wyatt.
In April, jurors in Philadelphia convicted Cosby of penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious and penetration after administering an intoxicant.
Cosby’s former legal team at the time was headed by Thomas Mesereau, a high-profile Los Angeles attorney best known for representing celebrities like Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson and Robert Blake.
“I wish Mr. Cosby, his family and his new defense team all the best,” Mesereau told ABC News, declining further comment. Wyatt gave no reason for the shakeup.
Cosby's new attorney is Joseph P. Green of Philadelphia. According to his attorney profile on his website, Green is working on several cases involving sex offender registration, including challenging the retroactive application of sex offender laws.
Green served as an elected Republican Committeeman in East Bradford Township from 1998 to 2007.
“I am looking forward to representing Mr. Cosby in post verdict proceedings and at sentencing,” Green said in a brief statement after joining the case. “There are complicated legislative and constitutional issues unique to Pennsylvania law that have to be addressed prior to sentencing.”
According to NBC News, Cosby’s three charges of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in his Philadelphia-area home in 2004 are expected to be combined into a single charge that could carry a sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
More than 50 women have accused Cosby of sexual assaults spanning several decades. He continues to deny all of the allegations.
Amidst this legal upheaval, Cosby’s personal life is also under public scrutiny.
Wyatt has denied rumors this week that Cosby’s wife Camille is considering divorce, telling People that the “absolutely false” report on the tabloid website Radar Onine is a “ridiculous story from an egregious publication.”
“Mrs. and Mr. Cosby are not getting divorced and she’s with him in the Philadelphia home as we speak,” he said.
Cosby’s sentencing begins on September 24 and is expected to take two days.
[Photo: Getty Images]
