Philadelphia • Bill Cosby has hired Michael Jackson’s former lawyer to represent him at his November retrial on sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania.
Cosby’s spokesman announced Monday that 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 2004 child molestation trial. He has also represented boxer Mike Tyson, rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and a Playboy bunny.
Mesereau will be joined by former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss, as well as Sam Silver, who represented now-imprisoned former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania 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.