Bill Cosby’s Sexual-Assault Retrial Postponed Until 2018 [VIDEO]
Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges has been pushed back until 2018 so that the entertainer’s new defense team can get caught up on the case, reports Vulture.
Cosby appeared at his pre-trial hearing for his retrial in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday morning (Aug. 22). Judge Steven O'Neill granted the defense’s request to postpone the retrial from its original start date of Nov. 6 to tentatively begin between March 15 and April 1, 2018, barring any unforeseen scheduling problems.
Cosby's new legal team consists of Tom Mesereau, the high-powered lawyer who won an acquittal in Michael Jackson's child molestation case. Other attorneys on the team are former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss and Sam Silver. The attorneys who represented Cosby at the first trial, Brian McMonagle and Angela Agrusa, had dismissed themselves from the case.
After the hearing, Cosby as well as his new legal team left the courthouse with no comment.
Back in June, Cosby's first trial ended in a hung jury after 52 hours of deliberations. The 79-year-old comedian was on trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. Jurors were hopelessly deadlocked in reaching a verdict and the judge declared it a mistrial.
Cosby will now face the three counts of aggravated indecent sexual assault next spring.