Paul Bergrin

Paul Bergrin (born December 8, 1955) is an American convicted felon and former criminal defense lawyer who practiced law in Newark, New Jersey. Prior to his conviction, he was known for defending a range of famous and notorious clients. and a federal court has likened Bergrin's downfall to the plot of a drama by Sophocles or Martin Scorsese. Bergrin joined the U.S. Army in 1979,

In November 1989, Bergrin testified as a character witness on behalf of two investigators for the Essex County prosecutor's office who were charged with protecting a Newark drug dealer in exchange for cocaine and money. Bergrin called the defendants "upstanding individuals who would never put their careers or jobs in jeopardy by stating anything other than the truth." Although Alito assured Bergrin before his court appearance that his job would not be affected by his testimony, Bergrin said afterwards that he felt a "coolness and aloofness" towards him from his fellow prosecutors.

Criminal career Velez perjury In 2001, after Marilu Bruno-Velez dropped off her nine-year-old daughter, Carolyn Velez, at school, her husband Norberto Velez, from whom she was in the process of getting a divorce, approached her car and asked to speak with her. Carolyn was living with her father at the time under a joint custody agreement and had just spent three days with her mother, and Velez became angry that she had not returned sooner. They began arguing over custody of their daughter, and Velez stabbed his wife eight or nine times with a steak knife. A number of other parents outside the school who witnessed the stabbing called the police, and Velez was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Bergrin alleged that Bruno-Velez abused both Velez and his children, and "led him into deep depression and psychosis."

After Velez told Carolyn he had been acquitted, she told her mother that Velez, Bergrin, and Bergrin's girlfriend, Yolanda Jauregui, had coached her to lie under oath. On July 9, Bruno-Velez took Carolyn to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, where she made a 90-minute video-recorded statement that she had been coached to lie. Velez later testified that Bergrin told her he needed her help to keep her father out of prison, and that "this is the kind of case where you can't tell the truth."

Murder of DeShawn McCray As the attorney for Hakeem Curry, Bergrin was retained to represent a number of members of Curry's drug-trafficking organization, including Curry's cousin, William Baskerville. When Baskerville was arrested in November 2003, Bergrin spoke to him in jail and learned that Baskerville suspected the source of the government's evidence against him was DeShawn McCray, also known as Kemo. In a phone call to Curry which was intercepted by FBI agents, who were wiretapping Curry's cell phone, Bergrin said, "I got a chance to speak to William, and he said the informant is a guy by the name of K-Mo." On March 2, 2004, while McCray was walking with another person on a busy Newark street, a heavyset black male with dreadlocks confronted the pair, shot McCray three or four times, and then fled in a car. McCray was pronounced dead at the scene.

The U.S. Attorney's Office moved to have Bergrin removed from Baskerville's case because of his disclosure of the informant's identity, fearing that Bergrin's counsel would be a potential ground for appeal after Baskerville was convicted. Bergrin said that although the informant's name was withheld in the complaint against Baskerville, the details included of the dates and quantities of his drug purchases as well as the date he was arrested made his identity clear, and that he had passed on McCray's name pursuant to his duty to evaluate evidence against his client, including the credibility of witnesses. Bergrin denied that he, Curry, and Baskerville had anything to do with McCray's death, saying that McCray was informing on several drug dealers and many people had a motive to kill him, and also suggested that the real reason for the motion to remove him from the case was retaliation for his vigorous defense of his clients, saying, "when you're constantly battling prosecutors and law enforcement officers who are your adversaries, sometimes you make enemies." Bergrin withdrew from the case in December; federal prosecutors charged Baskerville with conspiracy to murder McCray in March 2005, but Bergrin was not yet charged with a crime.

Pozo and Esteves murder plots Richard Pozo, a large-scale cocaine trafficker, retained Bergrin to represent him after he was indicted in February 2004. Bergrin determined that Pozo's co-defendant, Pedro Ramos, was cooperating with the government against Pozo. Pozo retained new counsel.

Vicente Esteves, another drug trafficker, was arrested by federal agents in 2008, and retained Bergrin on the advice of a fellow inmate. Esteves later testified that Bergrin advised him to kill the witnesses, quoting Bergrin as saying, "there's no witnesses, there's no case." Esteves also testified that Bergrin helped him compile tax returns that would make his drug revenues look like legal income so he could use it to pay his bail, and arranged for Esteves' co-defendants to be represented by attorneys who were tasked with informing Bergrin if anyone decided to cooperate with the prosecution. Bergrin later claimed in court that he knew all along that Cordova was an informant, and was "role-playing" in these conversations.

Prostitution ring In 2001, Bergrin met Jason Itzler, who called him after being arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport for trying to smuggle ecstasy into the United States. Bergrin's attorney suggested that he was the victim of retaliation from prosecutors on account of his work in criminal defense.

On May 4, 2009, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and he was sentenced in September to time served (amounting to several hours awaiting processing), 3 years probation, and forfeiture of $50,000.

Criminal indictments In May 2009, Bergrin was arrested for conspiring to murder an informant in March 2004 to prevent his testimony against one of Bergrin's clients.

On June 6, 2011, Bergrin was charged with a multitude of federal criminal charges: a federal grand jury returned a 138-page, second superseding indictment against Bergrin, previously accused of heading a crime syndicate involved in bribery, mortgage fraud and murder of a witness, now adding racketeering charges.

Bergrin's first trial in 2011, on a portion of the charges, ended in a hung jury. The trial judge was William J. Martini, Bergrin was represented by Larry Lustberg of Gibbons P.C. Robert A. Mintz, of the Newark firm McCarter & English was appointed receiver for Bergrin's law practice. In 2012, the Third Circuit permitted the government to introduce evidence of another occasion when Bergrin had allegedly plotted the murder of a witness, who planned to testify against Richard Pozo.

On March 18, 2013, a jury convicted attorney Bergrin of all 23 counts on which he was tried, including conspiracy to murder a witness and other racketeering, cocaine and prostitution offenses. The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman, announced the verdict. "Bergrin's conduct was a stunning violation of his role as an officer of the court and a betrayal of his roots as a member of law enforcement", said U.S. Attorney Fishman. "Today, the jury returned the verdict compelled by the evidence and imposed the justice he deserved. We take no joy from his tragic fall, but I am extremely proud of the work done by those in my office and agents from the FBI, IRS and DEA that led to this just result."

Bergrin received a life sentence on September 23, 2013. On December 18, 2014, his convictions and sentences were upheld by a three-judge federal appeals panel. Bergrin was disbarred in New York in 2010, and in New Jersey in 2016.