The art of Kevin Blythe Sampson

THE ART OF
KEVIN BLYTHE SAMPSON

6/23/09

Paul Bergrin, former federal prosecutor, is indicted for alleged role in killing of informant

 
Posted by cdelacru May 20, 2009 20:19PM

Authorities say there was a mantra at the Law Office of Paul W. Bergrin: "No witness, no case."

The prominent defense lawyer orchestrated a racketeering operation out of his Newark firm that regularly intimidated -- and in at least two cases plotted to murder -- witnesses scheduled to testify against drug dealers and gang members, according to a federal indictment unsealed today.

Sarah Rice/For the Star-LedgerPaul Bergrin is a high-profile criminal defense attorney in New Jersey who was recently charged with being involved in an upscale call girl service in New York.

"He employed every illegal tool available to disrupt our system of justice and keep murders, drug dealers and gang leaders on the street," acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra said.

Bergrin, a former assistant U.S. Attorney and Essex County Prosecutor, was arrested today by the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration along with three others, including a lawyer, Thomas Moran, 42, who worked in his office. They appeared in U.S. District Court in Newark on charges including witness tampering, racketeering, mortgage fraud and murdering a federal witness.

Bergrin could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder charge, assistant U.S. attorney John Gay said.

His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, said Bergrin planned to plead not guilty. "These are very serious charges, and we will mount a serious defense," he said.

Federal authorities have long been investigating Bergrin, a former Army major who two weeks ago pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to helping run an exclusive Manhattan call-girl ring. He faces up to three years probation.

With his carefully coiffed hair and pencil-thin mustache, Bergrin is a familiar and provocative figure in New Jersey courtrooms. His clients have included Queen Latifah, rap mogul Lil' Kim and Javal Sean Davis, a soldier convicted of mistreating detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

But the core of Bergrin's business has been defending gang members and drug dealers, authorities said. Those clients included William Baskerville, who in 2003 was charged with buying cocaine from an FBI informant.

Authorities say Bergrin passed the informant's name -- Kemo Deshawn McCray -- to Baskerville's cousin, a Newark drug kingpin, and said the prosecution would crumble if he were to die, authorities said.

"No Kemo, no case," Bergrin allegedly said.

In March 2004, McCray was shot three times in the back of the head on a Newark street. Baskerville was convicted of ordering the execution in 2007.

Authorities also accuse Bergrin of trying to enlist a hit man to kill at least one witness in a Monmouth County drug case. Vincente Estevez, 36, hired Bergrin after being charged by the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office with drug trafficking.

Soon after, Bergrin and Moran began pinpointing witnesses to eliminate, including someone they referred to as "Junior the Panamanian," authorities said. During a meeting with the alleged hit man in Chicago, Bergrin said the killing could not look like a hit.

"I got it all figured out ... put on a ski mask and make it look like a robbery," Bergrin said, according to authorities.

But the execution never happened. The hit man was an undercover informant, authorities said.

Estevez, 36, of Manalapan, is still awaiting trial in federal custody. He was charged in today's indictment with conspiracy to travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise.

Yolanda Jauregui, 37, of Nutley, a woman described as Bergrin's girlfriend, was charged with wire fraud in connection to a mortgage-fraud scheme that authorities say Bergrin spearheaded. The alleged scheme involved falsifying documents to inflate values of properties Bergrin and others owned, prompting banks to lend more than $1.1 million to buyers who often defaulted on the mortgages.

Sundiata Koontz, 37, of West Orange, was charged with wire fraud in connection to the alleged mortgage fraud.

Bergrin grew up in Brooklyn, and his father was a New York City police officer. After being discharged from the Army, Bergrin took as job in 1985 with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, where he handled more than a dozen murder cases.

In 1987, he joined the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark. Two year later, Bergrin infuriated his fellow federal prosecutors by testifying on behalf of an investigator from the Essex County Prosecutors Office who was charged by the U.S. Attorney's office with extorting a cocaine dealer.

The investigator was convicted, despite Bergrin's testimony that he "had a reputation for truth, veracity and integrity." Bergrin resigned from the U.S. Attorney's office the following year, claiming his superiors had ostracized him.

He become a defense lawyer, and in 1992 was indicted on charges of evidence tampering while defending a client in a federal racketeering case. The charges were dropped two years later.

John Lacey, a white-collar crime defense attorney in Roseland who worked with Bergrin back in the late 1980s, recalled the two incidents as the beginning of hostilities between Bergrin and prosecutors. The hostility, he said, grew as Bergrin became the go-to lawyer for New Jersey street gangs.

"He's always on the edge," Lacey said.

Bergrin was arrested at about 7 a.m. today at a home in Nutley he shares with Jauregui, authorities said. The lawyer owns several properties in New Jersey, including in Newark and Morganville, where investigators today seized three handguns, one of which was not registered to Bergrin, according to Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.

At Moran's home in Paramus, investigators recovered a .12 gauge shotgun with the serial number rubbed out and an illegal Colt M-16 assault rifle, Drewniak said.

Bergrin appeared in U.S. District Court today wearing a white button-down shirt and dark slacks. He answered quietly to the judge: "Yes, your honor," when asked if he understood the charges.

Prosecutors asked for Bergin to he held without bail, saying he was likely to flee if released. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo said she would schedule a bail hearing for next week.

Weysan Dun, head of the FBI's Newark office, said Bergrin's crime represented a heinous betray of the oath he once took as a federal law enforcement officer.

"We have witnesses. We have evidence. We have a good case," Dun said. "And Mr. Bergrin will have his fair day in court, despite the fact that he endeavored to ensure that other might not, to their advantage."

No comments:

Post a Comment