Meet the Criminal Lawyer's Criminal Lawyer

I was putting this off since it's from MikeB's patch, but since I am admitted in two US Jurisdictions this story was brought to my attention by my "learned colleagues" ( a phrase usually said with dripping sarcasm).

Meet Paul Bergrin--a man who really puts the criminal in criminal defence attorney.

This is a man who could guaranty an acquittal, because he would have the complaining witness killed.

“ ‘No witness, no case’—that was Paul’s motto,” said one attorney. “There was this guy with a tattoo of the scales of justice on his back. Below the scales was the quote, ‘No witness, no case—Paul Bergrin.’ When your customers are all criminals, what’s better advertising than a prison tattoo?”

And for those of you who don't mind "jury nullification":

Said a local hustler with “­double-figure” arrests behind him who I’ll call “Melvin B.,” “I’ve had a hundred fucking lawyers in my life, and Paul Bergrin was only one who looked me in the eye like a man. He cared. He knew the reality, how the deck was stacked, and was willing to fight fire with fire. He went to war for you. That’s why Paul was loved in the streets. Shit, Paul was ­revered in the streets.”

Then, casually, Melvin let drop that he had done “a little legal work” for Paul Bergrin from time to time. “Yeah, I might have fixed a jury or two.” It was easy, Melvin said. “You don’t have to win; a hung jury is good enough.” Melvin explained his M.O. First he got himself into the jury-pool room. “When you’re a black man in Newark, you’re always going to know someone or someone who knows someone. You ask around. Find out who’s on which jury, make a deal. But sometimes they’ll come to you.

Listening to a description of a well-known Bergrin case in which Melvin claimed to have given a juror $10,000, one prosecutor exclaimed, “That’s exactly what I heard!”

Now, that's jury nullification in action!

So the next time you want to call me scum, just think of the others out there who are happy that you provide their clients with lots of guns!

Let's give them a pass when they commit murder as well!