Criminal Attorney - A Fool for a Client | 6

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

When Paul Bergrin decides to defend himself, he pulls out all the stops in the fight of his life. And he faces off against his longtime nemesis, Agent Shawn Brokos - with his freedom on the line.Follow Criminal Attorney on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/criminal-attorney/ now.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Criminal Attorney early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Wondery Plus Fornos is an old-school Spanish joint in downtown Newark, where you can get paella or a New York strip steak. There were white tablecloths, waiters wearing a shirt and tie, Christmas music playing on the speakers. It's exactly the kind of spot you can imagine Tony Soprano would go to.

It was also the place where Paul Bergrin chose to have his birthday dinner in December 2008. His girlfriend Yolanda and one of his attorneys were there too. But it wasn't just a celebration. There was business to attend to. And that's why Oscar Cordova was there. Paul hoped Oscar would help him solve a problem. Oscar was in the Latin Kings. Let's look for this little fucking king.

His name is Jose Rosnero. It's hard to hear, but Paul is talking about a little fucking king he wants Oscar to get rid of. He's testifying against me for a fucking armed robbery case. Someone I'm representing. It was a slip of the tongue, but a telling one. Paul was taking this personally. Later on, when they got up to use the restroom, Paul opened and closed every stall door just to make sure nobody was listening. Then Oscar told Paul about his problem.

He was supposed to deliver cocaine to these two guys. Only Oscar didn't want to deal with them. He didn't trust them. Paul had a solution. I'll fucking take care of it. It was a clear-cut offer to help distribute drugs. Paul was acting as if this was just an ordinary part of business. He was being direct and helping out a new partner.

The same couldn't be said for Oscar, because Oscar was working as an informant and recording their entire conversation. Paul's obsession with loyalty had once destroyed his career as a prosecutor, but this time, it might just destroy his life. might just destroy his life. From Wondering, I'm Brandon Jenks Jenkins, and this is Criminal Attorney. This is episode 6, A Fool for a Client.

When you walk in the New Jersey Federal Courthouse, you're dwarfed by the huge sculpture of the Greek goddess of law and order, Themis. She stands out front in the middle of the plaza, wearing a blindfold to represent that she's totally free from corruption or prejudice. The Themis sculpture is over 10 feet tall. It's impossible to miss it. But some people joke that in Newark, a city known for vice and corruption, maybe the blindfold doesn't mean that Themis is impartial. It's that she's oblivious. Henry Klingeman sat in a wood-paneled courtroom for Paul Bergrin's second trial.

As a lawyer, he'd been part of many trials before. But Paul stood out. People believed in him. He had fans the way an entertainer or a sports figure might. That's unusual for a lawyer to have people in the community turn out the way they did for him. Henry was there representing Anthony Young, one of the key witnesses who would testify against Paul.

Anthony is the one who said he was there when Paul Bergrin ordered the hit. He had confessed to the shooting of Kimo McCray and received a 30-year sentence. Henry was just there to help Anthony with his testimony. Paul's fans did not approve, and they let that be known from the jump at the first trial. I would say I'm Anthony Young's lawyer, and they would say, oh, he's the devil.

But even with this support, Paul had a big disadvantage this time. After the mistrial, the US attorneys went hard. First, they appealed the separation of the charges and won. Now, everything was back in play. The money laundering, the drugs, the witness tampering, and the murder, but they didn't stop there. They argued the judge couldn't be impartial.

And the court agreed. The Court of Appeals ruled that the first judge needed to be replaced. It was a very unusual set of circumstances. This was massive. The government would be getting a clean slate, a terrible outcome for Paul. If he hadn't been on the receiving end of this,

he might even have respected it. You know, what do they say? FBI always gets its man. On the day of the opening statements, a guard led Paul into the courthouse early in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. Just like at the first trial, Larry Lusberg met Paul and handed him a dark suit and tie to change into.

It was one of his suits that was given to me by his family, by his daughter, and I think there were a few that we cycled them in and out and got them dry cleaned. For the second time, Paul sat with Larry at the defense table. Larry could see that everything was taking a toll on Paul. He was tired from the years and years and years of being just held in prison. There's zero doubt that he is not the physical presence that he was. His courtroom theatrics though, they were as strong as they'd ever been. I have waited a long time for this day,

a very long time, for the evidence to come forth and either prove me guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or stop accusing me. There's no recording of the trial. This is an actor reading from the court transcript of Paul's opening remarks. It's human nature to make mistakes. It's human nature to say things that sometimes you don't mean.

But that doesn't mean I committed any crimes. That doesn't mean I ever intended any crimes to be committed. And you'll see in this case that I never did. I never did. He wanted to prove his innocence but at a trial when you're a criminal defendant you don't have to prove your innocence. They have to prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You could be not guilty and yet not be innocent and that's his key to freedom. Larry had advised Paul not to focus on a government conspiracy as his defense.

Larry thought the jury would never believe it. But Larry wasn't the one running the show. against Paul Begrin. That is fact. That is not fiction. Paul asked the judge and the jury to give him a chance, to give him the benefit of the doubt. That's what I will ask each and every one of you,

to determine where the truth lies. That's all I ask. I want justice. One of the first people to be cross-examined by Paul was Johnny Davis, Kimo's stepfather. Good morning, Mr. Davis. Just imagine this moment. Your son was murdered.

Now you're face to face with the man who's being accused of ordering that murder. This was a chance to hold that man accountable. Before Paul could ask his first question, Johnny said, Oh boy, I waited two years to hear from you. When the prosecutors questioned Johnny, the story he had told was painful. He had been walking with Kimo after picking up sandwiches and some cigarettes when Kimo was shot. Johnny was so close that when the gun went off, he could feel the heat on his neck.

When he turned around, he saw Kimo on the ground. Ultimately, Johnny said that he didn't get a good look at the shooter. He just saw the side of his face as he put the gun away and got into a silver car. Johnny had told investigators he remembered only that the shooter was heavyset with dark skin and he remembered his hairstyle. Paul recognized a weakness here, so he began to poke at it. And there's no doubt in your mind you saw a man with shoulder-length dreadlocks, correct?

Johnny said, correct. After the the shooting Johnny ran into someone at a store. And when you went into the store one thing that you'll never forget as long as you live is you saw and you went face to face essentially with the person that killed your son correct? Correct. According to Johnny, the man walked up to him, inches from his face and asked, do you remember me? The threat was clear. If you snitch on me, you'll end up like your son.

So Johnny said he didn't recognize him. Paul showed Johnny a picture of Anthony Young, who had a shaved head and light skin, not dreadlocks and dark skin. But this is not the man who shot your son. Johnny said, no. He told Paul he didn't know Anthony Young. The one person who was there when Kimo died, who was just a few feet away when it happened,

was saying on the stand that Anthony Young was not the killer. And if Anthony Young was lying about being the killer, could he also be lying about Paul ordering the hit? It's impossible for Anthony Young to be telling the truth when you have over 100 inconsistencies between his FBI statements, between his testimony in 2007 and his testimony in 2011. Paul had struck a blow to the prosecution's case. And if he was just being charged for the murder, maybe it would have been enough. But this trial was just getting started

and there were a lot more charges he was facing. There was promotion of prostitution, which Paul had already admitted to, the drug charges, and tampering with witnesses. And it's that last one that would become a problem, because he was about to come up against someone from his past. Someone who at the time didn't know any better

than to do as she was instructed by the powerful men in her life. A little girl who'd now grown up and was ready to confront Paul face to face. In the 1970s, the FBI had weathered one scandal after another and implemented a mandate to regain the public's trust. But in doing so, they opened a Pandora's box to one of the most controversial missions in FBI history. Ab Scam, as it came to be known, was a sting operation to root out white-collar crime. Spearheaded by a lifelong con man, the FBI staged a lavish party on a yacht, set up illegal deals for casinos with federal agents pretending to be Middle Eastern businessmen. From the creators of American history tellers, business wars, and ties of history

comes American Scandal, where we take you deep into the heart of America's dark side. Every scandal begins with a lie, but the truth will come out. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. When everyday people commit shocking crimes, our first question is often, why? Whether it's the inner workings of a serial killer or a normal person driven to extraordinary

acts, the engine that drives them is more exciting than the clues of the crime scene. On Killer Psyche, retired FBI agent Candace DeLong draws on her decades of experience to reveal why murderers and criminals perpetrated their acts of violence. She reveals fascinating new details about famous cases and even ones she was close to. Candace shares specific psychological methods and profiling techniques that experts use to understand the deepest part of the most complex, fascinating, and twisted minds from the Unabomber to Dr. Death to Rex Hueerman. Follow Killer Psyche on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Join Wondery Plus and enjoy exclusive episodes of Killer Psyche, early access to new ones, and all episodes are always ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. In front of a packed courtroom, the prosecutor called a woman to the stand. This wasn't her first time testifying in court. She had done it ten years earlier in a case involving her father. Carolyn Velez walked up, put her hand on the Bible, and was sworn in. When she sat down, she faced the audience, the prosecutors, and Paul Berggrin.

Carolyn seemed anxious and fidgeted as she described the day her father, Norberto Velez, stabbed her mother. And then Carolyn met her dad's lawyer. He told me he was a friend and he was gonna help my dad. And he asked me if I loved my dad and I told him yeah. We reached out to Carolyn and she declined to participate in the series This is an actor reading transcripts from the trial and then he asked me if I wanted my dad to go to jail And I told him no and he told me you know he just needed my help to keep him out of jail

Carolyn saw Paul numerous times to go over what she would say in court They would meet up at Paul's office, at her dad's house, at the restaurant Isabella's, where Norberto now worked. I guess they wanted me to just like say the lie. And I would tell them the truth, and they would kind of like correct me. But with the wrong story. He told me that this was a case where you couldn't tell the truth, where you had to lie.

And while Paul was coaching Carolyn, he had also showered her with gifts, trips to New York, and even a signed photograph of his old client, Queen Latifah. When the prosecution asked Carolyn why she told lies on the stand, she replied, Because Paul told me to say them.'" When the prosecution had no more questions, it was Paul's turn. Carolyn had to face the man she was accusing of having made her lie in court when she was a child, a fact he immediately tried to use to undercut her. "'So your memory is you don't have a clear memory in reference to a lot of factors in this case, correct?

I remember things. I just don't remember dates or what happened when, or if I met you at the restaurant and the next day at your office. Paul told her, your memory was obviously better in 2003 than it is now. She responded, I was lying that day. You were lying that day. You were lying that day. Because you guys wanted me to lie. This wasn't a good look for Paul. It's not really the guts of the case,

the Carolyn Velez piece, but it was an example of that they could use of where Paul tried to get a witness to say something. I thought that was a smart tactical move on their part. Often in criminal trials, it's impossible to know which way a case will go. Trials can be won or lost on so many small moments. While this moment was only one among many,

it's hard to imagine that it didn't stick in the minds of the jury. If Paul was willing to manipulate a child witness, what was off limits? That struck me particularly hard because I'm looking at a 20-year-old girl whose life has been forever changed because she knows at age nine she was manipulated into lying against her mother who nearly died. That and the death of Kimo were probably the most egregious things.

After almost a decade of investigating Paul Bergrin, Sean Brocos was ready to take the stand again. For their rematch, everything was fair game. She was finally free to expose the entire sprawling racket. It was a showdown, a hundred percent. There's no other way to put it. So as I sat across from him on the witness stand, it's like your surroundings kind of disappear and I'm just focused on him.

And I think it was the same for him. He's focused on me. Isn't it a fact that you had knowledge, specific knowledge of actionable threats against Mr. McCray before he was murdered? Did you ever ask any law enforcement officers to look out for Mr. McCray? As you sit there today under sworn testimony, are you telling us you didn't know about that? You didn't put

Mr. McCray under surveillance, correct? A simple yes or no answer. Did you put Mr. McCray under surveillance? He was extremely aggressive. He was extremely cunning, manipulative in his language. The judge had to caution him many times because there were many times he came up very close to the witness box where I was. This is how he operated in court, trying to intimidate. She knew what he was doing. More theatrics.

His whole testimony was to make me seem less credible, that I had lied, that I had falsified reports, that I had gotten reports wrong, but the material evidence doesn't change. The facts are the facts. Sean faced off against Paul on the stand for multiple days. At one point, the judge said, I think we've had a lot of repetition.

We're wasting time. You could feel it in the courtroom because the jury would just kind of be, you could read in their faces that this is just exhausting for everybody. Sean started to notice a change in him. I could sense his desperation. I think the jury just was probably thinking, what is this guy and why is he like this and

what is this all about? But it showed his true colors. Aggression could only get Paul so far. It wasn't that he was no longer good at it. He could still yell and badger with the best of them. He simply didn't have a strong enough case. The prosecutors did. And some of their most damning evidence came unwittingly from Paul.

Against himself. This little fucking king, his name is Jose Lucero. During that meeting at the old school Spanish restaurant, Paul didn't know he was being recorded. He didn't know that the potential hitman he was talking to, Oscar Cordova, was an informant himself. Paul and Oscar were introduced to each other by one of Paul Bergren's biggest clients, a major New Jersey drug trafficker named Vincent Estavez.

Vincent had an informant in the ranks, and needed to do something about it. So he sent Oscar to talk with Paul about a possible hit. But before that meeting, Oscar went to the feds, because as he put it, I sell drugs, I'm a gang member, but killing people is not my thing. The suspected mole was known as Junior the Pandamanian. Oscar wanted to know,

would taking him out hurt or help the case? Paul said, it's going to help it. Oscar had the microphone under his clothes, so the quality isn't great. Paul told him, put on a ski mask, and we'll fucking rob him, because there's gotta be a lot of money in the house. He added, we have to make it look like a robbery. Oscar then asked,

what do you suggest I do? Kill him? And Bergen responded, Yeah. Yeah. After dinner, Oscar got a ride with one of Paul's associates, and he told them about Paul's eagerness about the hit. He said he wanted to do it with me.

I said, no, Paul, for what? You want to ask him to become a lawyer? Stick with that shit. Let me do what I have. He said, Paul's a stone cold killer, but I know that. I know first and all what he is. The recordings were devastating, and the accumulation of evidence, the number of witnesses, were formidable. Paul could try to discredit a witness, poke holes in their stories, but when it came to his own voice, there was no defense. All those recordings from Paul's birthday dinner were played in court. Paul could be heard saying how they should kill a witness,

saying that he wanted to be there himself, saying that he could be the one who distributes cocaine. But the prosecution didn't stop there. They brought out Vicente Estevez, the drug trafficker himself. The prosecution asked him what strategies he discussed with Paul to win his case. His response was blunt, killing my witnesses. The prosecution later asked Vicente to be more specific. He said, there's no witness, there's no case. There it was. Paul's motto. Word for word. By now, the jury had heard multiple people come forward

and say that Paul had asked them to kill witnesses to keep himself and his clients out of jail. They were shown a pattern of witness tampering, whether it was manipulating a nine-year-old girl to lie on the stand, or straight up murdering an inconvenient witness. Paul had always been strong on closing arguments. Those big grandstand moments when he could sway a jury with his confidence, his swagger, his forceful rhetoric. He stepped out onto the floor and laid it all on the line, one last time.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I stand before you a very humbled individual. Sometimes I know I got aggressive, sometimes I got obnoxious, but you're talking about human emotions by an individual whose life is at stake. All I ever asked from day one when we began this trial is for you to seek justice and only when you determine where the truth lies will justice be done. You're going to think about this case a long time after it's over. You're going to think about it whether you're lying in bed, when you're driving to work, when you're with your loved one, a quiet moment in your life, even at your work desk. You're going to think about this case.

And I ask you to think about it long and hard, because when you go into that jury room to deliberate, there is no tomorrow for me. There is no tomorrow. Larry didn't think it would be enough. I thought he would be convicted. I told Paul that I thought he would be convicted. Paul was found guilty on all 23 counts. He just couldn't believe it. I mean he really, in his heart of heart of hearts, believes in his innocence on everything.

I think he slumped in his heart of heart of hearts, believes in his innocence on everything. I think he slumped in his chair and was, for whatever reason, just stunned. He didn't cry, which sometimes people do. I think I sat there and just cried. A tremendous sense of relief, accomplishment. It was like all these things that we had gone through and worked so hard on for years.

As he was let away, Paul caught Sean's eye one last time. He turned around and looked right at me, and he glared, glared at me. And I thought, hey, we got you. But his was a, fuck you, no you didn't. That was the dynamic between us. That was the last time Sean Brocos and Paul Bergrin were face to face. He was the last to fall in a sweeping investigation that had taken out some of Newark's biggest drug kingpins.

And through his own outsized ambition, he received the worst punishment of them all. LARRY Larry was driving along an open road in rural Colorado. He passed field after field on his way to his destination. Out in the distance, he could spot the Rocky Mountains. But unlike all that wide open space, the place he was going to was all about confinement. A set of dread-inducing buildings that were surrounded by barbed wire. When you go in, you drive up a long road that goes past a number of prison facilities other than the ADX at Florence. The ADX at Florence, a supermax prison.

This is the home of El Chapo and the Boston Marathon bomber. Only people who had done really bad things, who were seen as extremely dangerous, ended up here. Larry was led into a meeting room. He was all by himself. You go into a booth where you sit, I want to say, about eight feet apart with a glass partition between you. There's no tactile relationship. You can't shake the person's hand or give the person a hug.

A guard led inmate number 16235050 into the room. Today, Paul Bergrin is categorized as one of the most dangerous prisoners in America. It's been a very bad place for him, as I understand it, because he's needed and needs to this day significant medical attention that he's not getting. You know, he's a Jersey Jew. He's surrounded by white supremacists. In a 2019 letter to a judge, Paul described Florence as, quote,

as close to a modern concentration camp as possible. There are absolutely no checks nor balances, and flagrant sadistic misery, pain, and sorrow are the norm. They don't even get out of their cells, and so they're just in this very tiny place that's all concrete or metal, 24-7 for day after day after day. Meals are slid under the door or through the slot.

Paul has been held in almost complete isolation. He has no access to a computer, and his communication with the outside world is closely monitored. He's only allowed to talk to two people, one of his children and his lawyer, Larry. I don't believe that the conditions he's held in are fit for a civilized society. I think it's wrong. Sean Brocos doesn't. She believes the punishment fits the crime. Full stop.

You reap what you sow. He's at super max with the terrorists and the other people who look to take down our country and I put him right in that, I lump him right in that same group. Paul was moved into a supermax prison three years after sentencing. The federal government believed that even behind bars, his ability to intimidate and manipulate witnesses was as strong as ever. He put himself there. He made those life choices that ultimately got him there. And he's there because he is a danger to society.

Even after he was in custody, he was trying to have witnesses killed. And we have evidence of it and we have recordings of it. of it. Akima was a low-level dealer when he got pulled in by the FBI on a gun charge. And maybe he would have kept selling drugs if he had said no to Sean and the FBI. But it's also possible he could have ended up working on houses with his stepdad full time. Instead, he was pushed to meet with drug dealers higher and higher up the chain until he collided with Will Baskerville, Hakeem Curry, and Paul Bergrin.

People he wouldn't have crossed paths with if it wasn't for the FBI. And once he made the decision to become a confidential informant, once he was in that deep, there was no way he could turn back. Kimo had a family. He had people he loved and people who loved him. And he died senselessly, caught up in a game that powerful people were playing. This was a guy who got pulled up on a petty gun charge and ended up having to do this thing that was very powerless and dangerous and eventually resulted in his death. That's reporter Matthew Nelson. How do you respond to those criticisms?

Oh, I get it. I get it. At what stage do you lose free will, right? Kimo had decision-making power all along. He could have eaten that gun charge, right? He could have done his five years in prison. He decided to cooperate. So at various stages, he has this decision-making ability. But as he's getting further down the road,

he's really getting into that trick bag where now he's in it and he can't get out of it. But even when they knew he was the source, he still had that ability. He could have gone into WITSEC. I get it's not an appealing choice. Very few people want to do it, and the success rate for staying in is not that high. He could have done those things, and he chose not to.

I'm not putting the blame on him. He didn't sign up for this, right? But there's choices he made that affected the outcome. There's choices I made that affected the outcome. There's choices I made that affected the outcome. What happened to chemo? It happens to other confidential informants across the country. Law enforcement agencies have come to depend on them, and they're sent into dangerous situations but without the benefit of a badge and the protections and power that come with it.

Policies about how CIs are used vary from state to state, or even by district. But there are individuals and organizations that are trying to change that. The Confidential Informant Accountability Act, if passed, would create a certain level of scrutiny over federal law enforcement's use of informants, including getting data on how informants are used, and to hopefully avoid another Kimo McCray,

another human being put in an impossible situation. Remember Themis, the statue of the woman wearing the blindfold outside the New Jersey Federal Courthouse? It would be comforting to think that when it came to justice, she was truly blind. But we all know that's not how it works. The system that dishes out justice is personal. Shambrocos knows that.

She's retired from the FBI, but she still thinks about Kimo and Paul. And Paul Bergren knew that too. He blew up his entire career testifying for those corrupt detectives when he was a government prosecutor because of personal loyalty. He made a child lie to keep his friend out of jail. He used his position as a lawyer for his own benefit,

money, drugs, escorts. And in the end, he bet his freedom on his own abilities. He was a formidable courtroom lawyer, and he was better than most, even without resorting to witness tampering. And if he had pursued that and stayed on one side of the line, he might be around today being interviewed by your podcast and driving his Bentley.

Instead, he's in a federal prison. He could have had anything, been anything. It might be that he believed he could walk between worlds indefinitely. He couldn't. All we know is that he chose a road that could only take him so far. And then he crashed. My guess is that Themis lowered the blindfold just a bit and peeked out when Paul Bergen

walked into the courtroom that last time. And she had seen enough. Follow Criminal Attorney on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. From Wondery, this is the sixth and final episode of Criminal Attorney. Criminal Attorney is hosted by me, Brandon Jenks Jenkins. This series is reported and written by Matthew

Nelson. Senior producers are Chris Siegel and Stephanie Wachnin. Senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Associate producer is Malik Highwaite. Consulting producer is David Fox. With additional writing from Neil Drumming. Fact checking by Annika Robbins. Sound design and mixing by Jeff Schmidt. Audio assistance by Daniel William Gonzalez. Sound supervisor is Marcelino Villapondo. Music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Freesan Sync. Senior managing producer is Lata Pandilla.

Managing producer is Heather Baloga. Development producer is Olivia Weber. Casting by Rachel Reese. Voice talent by Antonio Greco and Andrea Hernandez-Mieres. Special thanks to Matt Gant, Eliza Mills, George Draping-Hicks, Meg Driscoll, Chris Neary, Brendan Klinkenberg, and Hannah Chen. Executive producer is Matthew Nelson.

Executive producers are Nigel Eaton, George Lavender, Marshall Louie, and Jen Sargent for Wondry.