Disgraced defense lawyer Thomas Moran, after confessing to a multitude of sins, clung tightly to the Sixth Commandment: He would not kill.
Not even for his friend and mentor, renowned New Jersey attorney Paul Bergrin.
“I won cases the old-fashioned way,” the hard-drinking, coke-snorting Moran snapped from the Newark Federal Court witness stand, his implication clear: Bergrin preferred a more lethal approach toward acquittals.
Bergrin, a former federal prosecutor turned cutthroat defense lawyer, stands accused as John Gotti with a law degree — a ruthless racketeer every bit as dirty as his lowlife clients.
According to prosecutors, Bergrin actually went one step beyond the late Dapper Don. While Gotti preferred buying a juror to beat the rap, Bergrin allegedly embraced whacking a witness.
Or two. Or three.
The son of a Brooklyn cop faces life in prison if convicted in a 23-count federal murder, conspiracy and racketeering case staggering in breadth and content.
“He chose to become a criminal himself,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Minish told the Newark Federal Court jury. “He used his law license to disguise the fact that he was a drug dealer and a murderer.”
The panel began deliberations last Thursday after closing arguments in one of the Garden State’s most prominent recent prosecutions. Even New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, Paul Fishman, turned out to watch Bergrin’s last stand.
MARC A. HERMANN
Authorities haul defense attorney Paul Bergrin to a familiar place: court.
In addition to murder, the indictment details the high-powered lawyer’s purported roles in a cocaine ring and a Manhattan call girl operation once headed by “King of All Pimps” Jason Itzler.
“The 18 months I was with you, it was quite a run,” Moran told Bergrin, who represented himself. “It was filled with conspiracies.”
Bergrin spun a different scenario. Moran and other federal informers were morally bankrupt and eager to save their own skins, he charged. During an animated and impassioned 31/2-hour summation, Bergrin cajoled, challenged and even begged jurors to find him innocent.
“I have lost everything but my pride and my dignity,” Bergrin declared. “I have lost everything I worked for. But you are the real triers of fact. And you can lift this black cloud and show that this system of justice works.”
Bergrin, 57, is fighting for his life at an age when most lawyers with his résumé are making weekend plans with the grandkids.
The combative legal veteran — labeled “ The Baddest Lawyer in the History of New Jersey” in a 2011 magazine piece — was held without bail immediately after his May 2009 arrest and remains jailed in a Brooklyn federal lockup.
All of the nearly 50 government witnesses against Bergrin reached the witness stand in this case. But some of the most troubling remarks came from Bergrin’s own mouth.
The lawyer met more than a dozen times with Oscar Cordova, a purported Chicago hit man who was actually a federal informant.
RICHARD DREW/AP
Bergrin is accused of being John Gotti (pictured) with a law degree – a ruthless racketeer every bit as dirty as his lowlife clients.
“We gotta make it look like a robbery,” Bergrin advised Cordova about the proposed killing of a drug trial witness. “It cannot under any circumstances look like a hit.”
In another instance, authorities charged, the cold-blooded Bergrin signed off on a 2004 hit against FBI informant Kemo McCray: “No Kemo, no case.”
Bergrin offered his explanation directly to the jury for the damning comments to Cordova. “I am humbled, ashamed and embarrassed at some of the words that came out of my mouth,” said Bergrin, insisting his tough-guy talk was “immature, stupid role-playing.”
The mounting evidence did little to sway Bergrin’s loyal supporters, who sat through eight weeks of testimony.
“I know Paul as being honest and fair,” said Jahidah Sharif, a community activist from East Orange, N.J. “I know the mothers. Paul saved their children.”
Bergrin’s bold-faced clients included rapper Lil’ Kim, and the former U.S. Army major also took on the federal government — representing U.S. soldiers accused of Iraq war crimes.
But he really went to war against federal prosecutors in this case.
On cross-examination, the jut-jawed Bergrin pounded away like Mike Tyson in a double-breasted suit, sparing none of the government witnesses from his scorn. “How could you believe a word that they say?” Bergrin asked the jury. “I pray with all my heart and soul that you can separate fact from fiction in this case.”
Bergrin, if convicted on the informants’ words, provided his own legal epitaph in one taped conversation.
“Yeah, man, you gotta live by a code of f—ing not trusting anybody,” he said. “It’s a hard way to live. It’s a terrible way to live, man.”
LAWYER’S JUST A THUG IN A TIE
Charges against rogue attorney Paul Bergrin in 23-count federal indictment include:
- 2004 drug gang murder of federal informant Kemo McCray on a Newark street.
- Conspiracy to murder two witnesses in a Monmouth County, N.J., drug probe.
- Convincing a 9-year-old girl to lie in a 2003 attempted murder trial.
- Conspiracy to distribute multi-kilo quantities of cocaine, in some cases using his law office.
- Running the infamous “New York Confidential” prostitution ring after owner/client Jason Itzler was jailed.
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