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Bill Cosby Hemorrhaging Defense Counsel in Sex-Assault Case

When Bill Cosby faces a retrial on sexual-assault charges, he will do so without either of the defense attorneys whose work divided jurors in June, new court filings show.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CN) — When Bill Cosby faces a retrial on sexual-assault charges, he will do so without either of the defense attorneys whose work divided jurors in June, new court filings show.

Filed Tuesday in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, the request shows that Los Angeles-based attorney Angela Agrusa wants to withdraw as Cosby's counsel.

The request comes after the 80-year-old comedian’s lead defense attorney, Philadelphia-based Brian McMonagle, also asked to be taken off the case.

Though McMonagle’s request was set for an Aug. 22 hearing before Judge Steven O’Neill, Agrusa wants that hearing delayed until Sept. 11.

District Attorney Kevin Steele is fighting that push, saying it would delay justice.

Though Cosby faces allegations of having drugged and raped dozens of women dating back to the 1970s, the statute of limitations bars all but one of these women from bringing assault charges against Cosby in court.

Cosby met his trial accuser, Andrea Constand, at Temple University where he was a trustee and she was director of operations for the women’s basketball team.

Thirty-five years younger than the comedian, Constand testified in this year’s trial that she had come to see Cosby as a mentor and father figure, unaware that the attention he paid her was romantic. On the night of her alleged assault in early 2004, Constand said she had sought Cosby’s guidance about a possible career change.

She claimed that Cosby incapacitated her at his house in Cheltenham, a suburb of Philadelphia, and then had sex with her when she could not consent.

Constand, who is a lesbian, reported Cosby to the police in 2005, about a year after her alleged attack, but prosecutors initially found the case too weak to prosecute.

Cosby reached an undisclosed civil settlement with Constand, and the allegations all but faded from the public eye until a stand-up bit about Cosby’s image by comedian Hannibal Buress went viral in 2014.

Just as the 12-year statute of limitations was set to run on Constand’s claims, DA Steele reopened her case and brought charges against Cosby.

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