Bill Cosby Fires Legal Team, Only Hires One Lawyer To Replace Them Just 3 Months From Sentencing

In about three months, Bill Cosby will be sentenced for assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, for which he was found guilty. Nonetheless, the 80-year-old actor just fired his entire legal team.

Cosby hired only one lawyer to replace the other seven he originally had. Joseph P. Green Jr. will now take over from Thomas Mesereau and his team, the lawyers who couldn’t keep Cosby from being found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault in a retrial that ended on April 26.

Cosby, who is currently under house arrest, will be sentenced on after a hearing on Sep. 24 and 25. He’s expected to face five to ten years in prison.

Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt announced the legal team change on Thursday but didn’t provide a reason why.

Green is a Philadelphia-based attorney with experience handling sex crime cases.

Cosby, who has been a married man for decades, continues to say he is completely innocent and that any sexual encounters he engaged in have been consensual. Over 60 women have come forward to accuse the disgraced comedian of sexual assault from as early as the 1960s and on.

A source told ABC News that Cosby and his family were “disappointed” in the performance of Mesereau and his legal team.

However, they were considered to be a powerhouse in the legal world. Mesereau successfully defended Michael Jackson on child-molestation charges. Additionally, they had Kathleen Bliss, a former federal prosecutor, and appeals expert Becky James.

Yet, Cosby still felt the group wasn’t strong enough.

“They felt the case should have been tried a lot stronger, and they felt [co-counsel] Kathleen Bliss didn’t do a good job and that it should have had more of Mesereau’s hand on the wheel,” the source said.

Nonetheless, Mesereau kept his head held high.

“I wish Mr. Cosby, his family and his new defense team all the best,” Mesereau said.

Don’t forget, Cosby has separated from a legal team before. In his 2016 trial on the same charges, attorneys Brian McMonagle, Angela Agrusa and others chose to withdraw prior to the retrial. None of the lawyers have commented on why they did so.