PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bill Cosby has ousted the high-powered defense team whose aggressive tactics failed to sway jurors from convicting him of sexual assault in April.
FILE – In this Aug. 22, 2017, file photo, Bill Cosby leaves Montgomery County Courthouse after a hearing in his sexual assault case in Norristown, Pa. Cosby’s defense team says it wrongly accused prosecutors of hiding evidence from his suburban Philadelphia criminal sexual assault case. Cosby’s lawyers acknowledged in a court filing Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, they’d made the headline-grabbing claim without realizing prosecutors told Cosby’s former lawyer about interviewing a woman who cast doubt on his accuser. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt said Thursday that Tom Mesereau and the rest of the retrial team have been replaced by a Philadelphia-area defense attorney with experience handling sex crimes cases.
The new lawyer, Joseph Green, didn’t immediately return a message.
Wyatt wouldn’t say why the change was made.
Cosby is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 24 on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and assaulting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
The charges will likely be combined into one charge that carries a standard sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
The 80-year-old comedian has been on house arrest since his conviction.
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