Bill Cosby added former Michael Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau to his criminal defense team Monday, which already paid off dividends when a judge delayed the comedian's second criminal trial to next spring.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill granted the delay in the retrial Tuesday morning during a pre-trial hearing, tentatively setting the new approximate date at mid-March to early April, 2018, USA Today reported. Cosby's second trial was originally set for Nov. 8.
"To ask someone to review the voluminous record over 18 months — now 20 months in this case — simply cannot be done," O'Neill said from the bench, the newspaper reported.
Mesereau led the defense team that helped singer Michael Jackson get acquitted of child molestation charges in a high-profile trial in 2005, NBC said. He also assisted with the Robert Blake trial when the actor beat murder charges the same year, the broadcaster added.
He joins that team that included former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss and well-known Pennsylvania attorney Sam Silver, according to NBC News.
Cosby, the longtime comedian and actor and creator of the 1980s hit "The Cosby Show," faces three charges of felony of second-degree aggravated indecent assault that could put Cosby, 80, in prison for up to 10 years, according to Deadline.com.
He is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. Cosby, a Temple alumni and benefactor, was a member of the university's board of trustees at the time of the alleged assault, CNN noted.
He resigned from the board in 2014 under the increased spotlight of sexual assault allegations against him, CNN reported. At least 60 women have accused Cosby of various sexual assault claims spanning five decades, The Washington Post reported.
In the first trial at Norristown, Pennsylvania, jurors deliberated for 52 hours before a mistrial was called after they could not unanimously agree on a verdict, Deadline.com reported.
Cosby admitted in a decade's old deposition that he gave Constand Benadryl pills on the night of the alleged assault in his Philadelphia-area mansion, but said the sex they had was consensual, while Constand has denied that it was, Deadline.com stated.
Angela Agrusa, who is leaving the Cosby criminal defense team with Brian McMonagle, will remain as Cosby's leading civil attorney in numerous civil cases the comedian faces across the country in connection with past allegations, Deadline.com stated.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.