Bill Cosby hires Michael Jackson’s lawyer for sex trial

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 on Monday the 80-year-old comedian is bringing in Tom Mesereau to lead a retooled defence team. Lawyers from the first trial in June had said they wanted off the case.

Mesereau won an acquittal in Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial. He also has represented boxer Mike Tyson, rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and a Playboy bunny.

Mesereau will be joined by former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss and Sam Silver, who represented now-imprisoned former US Rep Chaka Fattah 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.