June 15 (UPI) — Bill Cosby replaced his legal team before he faces sentencing for his sexual assault conviction, the comedian’s publicist said Thursday.
Cosby, 80, hired Joseph Green Jr., a criminal defense lawyer based in Chester County, Pa., to replace the attorneys that represented him during trial, which includes Tom Mesereau, Becky James, Kathleen Bliss and Lane Vines.
“I wish Mr. Cosby, his family, and his new legal team all the best,” Mesereau told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I’m not answering any other questions about it.”
In April, a Montgomery County, Pa., jury found Cosby guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
Cosby was convicted on three counts of sexual assault and faces up to 10 years in prison on each count. He is free on bail and is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 24.
Green, Cosby’s new attorney, might be best known for defending Edward O’Brien III, who was found guilty of third-degree murder in 2016 after letting his 92-year-old father die by refusing to give him medical attention. O’Brien, 61 at the time, argued that it was his father’s wishes to not die in a nursing home or be cared for by strangers.
O’Brien was sentenced to five to 10 years.
