Criminal Attorney - Origin Story | 7

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Decades before the events of Criminal Attorney, Paul Bergrin was the son of a cop growing up in Queens. How did this environment shape Paul into the man he became?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. If you're expecting jinx, you might be surprised to hear a Scottish accent. I'm Matthew Nelson, the reporter for Criminal Attorney. Decades before the events of our podcast, a teenager called Rich Bretton stood at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in Rockaway, Queens. He and his friend put on their trunks, they steeled themselves, and decided to swim

across the channel from Queens to Atlantic Beach to go meet some other kids. So we swam over there, hung out with them for a while, shot some pool, ate some food and then had to swim back. Now this swim, it's not easy. It's about a quarter of a mile and there are hazards in the water. And there's boats and stuff going through there, not to mention the current between Atlantic Ocean and the Long Island Sound is pretty drastic.

Rich was a good swimmer, but this time he found himself in trouble. On the way back I ran out of steam, I guess from just the exertion of it all and having a full belly. I was starting to conk out. You know, I was clowning with my arms and stuff. Thankfully, his friend was there to help. Then luckily he was close enough to grab a hold of me and pull me in. That friend was Paul Bergrin. Rich says that Paul put him in a lifeguard hold and pulled him back to shore.

You know, I thought I was drowning, but he saved me. So he saved my life that day. I know it is a long time ago, but what was his reaction to those events? Lee was glad that he was there. He was like, no sweat, no problem. I got you. It seems like an important memory for both of you. It's also the kind of story that some people might be surprised to hear about Paul Bergeron. What do you make of that?

Well, I know he liked helping people. I mean, he helped me, he helped his brother when he was coaching the baseball team. He's just a helpful person. To Rich, he was a role model too. If you wanted to pick and describe what you wanted your kids to be like when they were teenagers, you would describe Paul. So what changed? And how did Paul Bergrin go from saving lives to ending them? From Wondery, I'm Matthew Nelson and this is Criminal Attorney, Episode 7, Origin Story. It's challenging to report on someone you can't actually interview. Paul was held under such strict conditions in prison that only his lawyers and his daughter can speak to him there. But what we did get was the chance to read his memoir, and it was full of information.

He was writing that while in prison, awaiting trial. He names names. That's Stjepan Mestrovic, the war crimes professor who Paul called to the stand while defending the soldiers in Iraq. And Paul believed his defense of those soldiers is one reason the government came down so hard on him. And he makes the connection, he makes the connections that that's came down so hard on him. And he makes the connection, he makes the connections that that's why they're going after him.

For over a year I tried to get my hands on Paul's memoir, the story's Rosetta Stone. Then one day a package arrived at my door. All right, it is Tuesday, April 23rd. Probably never going to get face to face with Paul, so perhaps this is the closest I will actually come to meeting him, this manuscript. Inside the box were 150 neatly typed pages. And it wasn't just Paul settling scores. There were stories from his childhood in Queens, his mum, his domineering dad, and the moments and places that really shaped him. Each page drew me in deeper, took me closer to Paul Bergrin. And it became clear

to me that this wasn't just a memoir. It was Paul's last stand, his real closing statement. The way Paul saw it, he was an underdog, caught up in a David vs Goliath battle with the US government. But what his memoir makes clear is that Paul has been fighting forces more powerful than him since the very beginning. Paul grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens, in the 1950s and 60s. Rockaway is a part of New York, but it feels more like a beach town than the big city. His home was just a few minutes from the waterfront, where he'd saved his friend Rich Breton from drowning that day.

We used to hang out also a lot at Beach Night Street. There's a playground there, a basketball and paddleboard courts, which we played all the time. It was a very mixed crowd. There was Jewish kids, Irish kids, Greek kids, black kids, you name it. We all were very close. Rich and Paul had been best friends since high school, and Rich spent a fair bit of time at the Bergrin family's modest home. All through high school. His mom was like my second mom. Paul didn't do much to worry his mother. He was a very good kid. He didn't steal anything from the supermarket checkout aisle or as a kid or any of those

things. So he was a very helpful studious, polite, he wasn't foul-mouthed. He was a straight shooter. Rich said that Paul was such a straight shooter that he tried to stop his siblings from stepping out of line. He told me the story about him and Paul crashing a party to stop them from smoking marijuana. We found out that a couple of siblings of ours were at somebody's house and we went over that way and found them and grabbed their purchase and threw it down the nearby sewer drain.

Because we weren't having that, we wanted them to be straight up people. Hearing this story now with all that we know, it's deeply ironic. All these years before Sean Brocos and the feds were raiding his restaurant and seizing kilos of cocaine, here was Paul making his own bust and saying no to drugs. Paul's father, Bertram Bergrin, was enforcing the law for real.

Bertram was a New York City Police Patrol officer. Rich said he was in charge of the 100th precinct in Southern Queens. He wasn't around a lot and he and Paul were never close, but he made a big impression on Rich. Let's just say I think their dad, I won't say where he got the money, but his dad had like a hundred different bank books back when you had bank books. And every time he opened up a bank book, they got a toaster or something like that.

These toaster ovens and kitchen appliances were the free gifts you used to get when you opened up a new account with a bank. They had a closet full of appliances and I remember his mom sitting down with Paul and I adding them all up one day. It was nothing to sneeze at. Rich said that there was something here that just didn't add up. Does that mean that he had more than one income? Well, I think it was more money than a policeman would make, put it that way. Yeah, I had no idea when he got it, but I don't think it was policeman salary.

Yeah. I can only guess. I mean, if you feel comfortable guessing, what would your guess be? Well, considering he was in charge at 100th briefing, I'm guessing he got kickbacks, but I don't know. Yeah. What kind of an impact do you think that had on impressionable young Paul? He's like me. He probably saw that there's different ways to make money.

But despite having a closet full of appliances, Paul said that his father was incredibly cheap, and didn't support his family because he was only interested in banking as much money as he possibly could. When his dad was at home, Paul wrote that he constantly berated him and his two siblings and told them that they would never amount to anything. He also said that his dad beat him, and that he has vivid recollections of his father's belt lashing against his limbs. The way Paul told it, his father tormented the entire family. Paul said that from a young age he wanted to prove his father wrong, show him that he wasn't worthless or a loser. Despite this, Paul yearned for his father's approval. He never got it.

Rich Breton said that Paul never mentioned any abuse to him, but it wasn't a very warm household. I don't see much affection between Paul's dad and any of the family members, not even his, not even Paul's mom. Still Paul initially planned to follow in his father's footsteps. In his memoir, he talks about passing the police entrance exam. But by this time, he was dating Barbara, the woman he would go on to marry and have a family with, and she urged him to aim higher. So Paul decided to shoot for a career that was prestigious, one that would

prove that he was smart, and capable, and successful. He decided to become a lawyer. But in Newark, some of the people he would go on to meet were not as squeaky clean as guys like Rich. Some of them would even introduce him to activities that might have been more familiar to his father. Perhaps the seeds of corruption that would later define Paul's career were sown right from the start. In his memoir, Paul wrote about what you might call an unorthodox autopsy. One day during his time at the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, Paul claims he walked in on the detective eating a sandwich in the autopsy room. And this detective, he was joking around with the medical examiner and sliced the body himself.

Clearly, this guy did not follow protocol. Paul says that this wasn't the only wild thing he saw. According to him, a lot of the office was self-serving and corrupt. Paul very quickly realised, or accepted, that the ends justified the means. In Newark, Paul jumped sides and became a criminal defence attorney. That's when he made friends, like Richard, Richie Roberts. Richie was famous for being the cop who brought down the drug kingpin Frank Lucas and his heroin empire. And if you remember the movie

American Gangster, he was played by Russell Crowe. I've seen American Gangster like so many times that it almost feels a little bit like Russell Crowe. The movie captured Richie's life as a cop. But after making huge busts like the one recreated in the movie, Richie decided to become a lawyer. I went to Seton Hall Law School in the evenings, five nights a week for four years. It cost me a very nice wife, but I guess it was worth it because I've had a couple since. By the mid 90s, Ritchie was a criminal defense attorney in Newark. And just like Paul, he'd switched from working in the Essex County Prosecutor's Office and became a criminal defense lawyer. You go from a detective to a prosecutor to private practice. If you are, a lot of guys did that, if you are a good prosecutor and you are known as

a very good lawyer, you're going to private practice. You're going to attract a lot of the wise guys and you're going to attract a lot of criminal business because they know you. You're a former prosecutor. These guys always think you know somebody you could talk to and maybe get a break. Far from the truth, but we don't dispel that image. Paul and Ritchie were often at the courthouse at the same time. You could see he understood the law. His style in the courtroom, put your head down and charge. Whoever gets knocked down and stomped on, that's their fault. It's your job to do that. Take no prisoners. I mean, he knew how to try a case. He got

quill after a quill. Paul and Ritchie ran in the same crowd, drank at the same bars and defended the same kinds of criminals. Occasionally they'd even pass along cases to one another and help each other out. At this point, crime in the city was at its peak. Carjackings were rampant, and by 1996, the violent crime rate in Newark was six times the national average. I mean, you're not going to walk out on a broad market and get a bullet in your head, am I? But probably not. People didn't go out in the streets at night in Newark unless they knew you, you knew them,

and you knew exactly where you were going. Can you walk around at night? Can you park your car? Give me for a laugh. There's only one person that could do that. Paul boasted about the fact that he could park his car. I don't remember what kind it was. It was a luxury car, a Mercedes, one of those, in the worst part of Newark, in front of the worst bar in Newark, and nobody would touch it. Nobody would go near it. He loved to talk about that, and he relished in it. You know, I go where I want to go, and I'll be looked upon as a big man and one of them.

And he was, and his car was never stolen, never scratched. This was because Paul was known in Newark. He had a reputation of being there for those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford a high powered attorney. And so his car was safe wherever he parked it. According to Ritchie, among the Newark lawyers at this time, Paul Bergrin was the main character. I'm not saying this in a positive sense,

but he was really a larger than life human being. Everything he did was big. Ritchie said that bigness extended to everything. The cars Paul drove, the flashy clothes he wore and the parties he threw. They were great parties. You had to leave because there was a thing full of coke and you didn't know who else was going to be there. You didn't want to get in trouble. The guest lists were pretty unusual too. There were some fine attorneys there, politicians there, there were drug dealers there who were clients. Not that they were doing anything. Paul's clients, of course, included drug kingpins, who stood around at the same party

as Paul's friends from law enforcement. I mean, were cops at those parties? Of course. Do cops smoke a little weed in those days? Sure they did. Just the way it was. Ritchie wasn't shocked to find criminals and cops at the same party. But over time, it became clear to him that Paul had a closer than average relationship with his clients. And just like John Edwards Tiffany, the lawyer who shared an office with Paul, Richie started to receive warnings. One day he met a prosecutor friend for drinks.

He was telling me these stories about Paul. And I couldn't believe it. What kind of stories? Well, he was telling me Paul's a gang guy. I said, what do you mean he's a gang guy? Have you noticed who he represents? I said, yeah, have you noticed who I represent? There's no one else to represent out there. So there was, but he told me to be careful. He said, you know, I'm not saying that,

I can't tell you that he's a criminal. I can tell you what we've been hearing about him and just be careful of your dealing with him. After that, Richie heard more and more about Paul stories about him being involved in New York confidential, working with the cartel and doing whatever was necessary to make sure that witnesses did not talk. Stories that would eventually be told inside a federal court. When I heard what the charges were, you know, it was like everything else. I was shocked and not shocked at the same time. After Paul's arrest, Richie ended up representing a client who was likely going to prison based on the evidence against him. But that's when a prosecutor approached him.

And said, can I talk to your client? I said, why? I said, because he was represented by Paul Bergrin. He could help himself if he gives us some information about Paul Bergrin. Ritchie spoke to his client. This kid told me that Paul either wanted to be present during a murder or was present during a murder. Again, that's just this one client talking. After that conversation, his client spoke with the prosecutor.

So when I went back to my guy, he said, yeah, he wants me to testify against Paul. I'm not going to testify against Paul. I said, well, you're dead on this case, you're going to go away for a long time. It was another devil's bargain. Go to prison or testify against Paul Bergrin. And he indicated to me that he was afraid of Paul. The prosecutor told me that if he had cooperated, he would have let this kid go scot-free on this case. This client would tell his lawyer about the murder, but there was no way he was going to get up and talk about it at Paul's trial. Given Paul's reputation, who could blame the kid? And if cops and robbers were at the same party, maybe Paul wasn't the only crooked

lawyer in town. One thing I've wondered, and I think perhaps you can answer this, was to what extent is Bergeron a product of his environment? Everybody was a product of the same environment that Paul was. Nobody ever did what Paul did. There was something in him that's the way I see it. And maybe it was too easy for him to get away with some of the things he was getting away with. I could name four or five cops like me who went to law school evenings and all became lawyers and none of us did what Paul did.

We're all exposed to the same environment. So while Richie Roberts did not take over an escort service or tamper with witnesses, he too, along with some of the other lawyers who worked in Newark, got into trouble. In 2019, he was disbarred. Richie and an old protégé of Paul's were accused of stealing money from clients. Richie pleaded guilty to perjury and theft.

John Edward's Tiffany had also been disbarred a few years before that for negligence towards clients and fraudulent and deceitful conduct. So it's hard to argue that the environment and all the blurred lines in Newark didn't at least play some kind of role in making all of these folks who swore to uphold the law go off the rails. But Richie doesn't buy that. If Paul was in Boise, Idaho and shit was happening, he'd be involved in it. Yeah, he would be involved. involved in it. Yeah, he would be involved in it. I've been working on this story for a couple of years now, and I've often asked myself, how do you explain Paul's behaviour? Reading his memoir, I started to wonder if it was all of the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of his father. Or maybe it was just

seeing all these other cops and lawyers cut corners and break rules from day one. Along the way, I asked a lot of attorneys what they thought and everyone had a different conclusion. I have to go with my original assumption. I think he was just crazy. He had no compulsion to try and be honest. Nothing along those lines mattered to him. I think everything he did gave him immediate satisfaction. John Edwards Tiffany, the lawyer who shared an office with Paul, thought it was in his nature.

I just think that something biologically, he was predisposed where I think, you know, he probably had sociopathic tendencies. Henry Klingerman, Anthony Young's lawyer, had a different perspective. Many people would think a lawyer hiring a hitman to kill a witness is insane in the sense that, you know, we're sitting at a bar talking about what a crazy case this is. But insanity in federal court means the defendant, like, thinks he's the Queen of England. And Paul was clearly in control of his faculties at all times. I think he's one of these tragic figures

that perhaps if he had stayed on the right side of the law, would have nonetheless been very successful. There is no clear consensus. The contradictions of Paul's life defy easy explanation. Was he a brilliant legal mind corrupted by circumstances, or a sociopath who manipulated the system? But either way, his downfall represents a profound failure of the very justice system he was sworn to uphold. How many people do you know like Paul Bergeron? There are not too many around. now by joining Wondery Plus in 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 a special episode of Criminal Attorney hosted by me, Matthew Nelson. This series is reported and written by Matthew Nelson. Senior producers are Chris Siegel and written by Matthew Nelson. Senior producers are Chris Siegel and Stephanie Wachnin. Senior Story Editor is Rachel B Doyle. Associate Producer is Malachi Wade. Consulting Producer is David Fox. Fact Checking by Onika Robbins. Sound Design and Mixing by Jay Rothman. Sound supervisor is Marcelino Villalpondo. Music supervisor is Scott Velosquez for Freeson Sync. Senior managing producer is Lata Pundia. Managing producer is Heather Beloga. Development producer is Olivia Weber.

Executive producer is Matthew Nelson. Executive producers are Nigel Eton, George Lavender, Marshall Louie, and Jen Sargent for Wondery.