Shargel Defends Gotti in the 'Good Old Days'

Gerald Shargel has on his website a video clip of him giving his closing statement in one of the John Gotti RICO trials in the late 1980s. (You need to click on "History," go along the timeline to 1990 and click on the "play video" over the image of Gotti.)

The fix was in -- and Gotti knew he'd be found not guilty. But watch this video and see the defense attorney in action. The Gambinos may have wasted some money with that payoff; Shargel just may have pulled it off. Elegant and intelligent, Shargel could use the force of argument as opposed to stomping around the courtroom, yelling and slam-dunking phonebook-thick indictments into garbage pails a la Bruce "the Bull" Cutler.

According to Wikipedia, Shargel (born 1944) is a high-profile defense attorney based in New York City who has been a member of the New York Bar since 1969. He has garnered attention as both a trial and appellate lawyer, representing white-collar clients and ordinary criminal defendants, but is most famous for, along with Bruce Cutler, securing the acquittal of Mafia boss John J. Gotti in 1990 on New York State charges that Gotti had ordered the shooting of labor union official John F. O'Connor. (It is opening remarks in that case that are in one of the videos on the link.)

In a subsequent 1991 federal case against Gotti, Judge I. Leo Glasser barred Shargel and Cutler from representing Gotti, agreeing with prosecutors' assertion that the lawyers were "house counsel" to the Gambino Crime Family and thus so knowledgeable about family business to be subject to be called as witnesses in the case (presenting a conflict of interest).

Some of Shargel's more recent high-profile clients include Daniel Pelosi, who was charged and later convicted of the second-degree murder of East Hampton millionaire Ted Ammon,[3] as well as that of Robert "Joe" Halderman in the matter of Halderman's extortion of TV personality David Letterman.[4]

If you click the link you must wait for the file to download before you will get the image. You may have to search for it -- but it is worth the search... Clips of John Gotti, resplendent and in the height of the last gasp of power, his iconic image is hard to forget...

Comments

  1. led my ass. this lawyer has a twenty year string of high profile losses. he buys expensive suits, rents high end offices a speaks nice, but the final result is the same the jury says guilty and he says pay me to writan appeal. everyone gets screwed except his long suffering wife

    ReplyDelete
  2. EVI
    Here is all you need to know,
    He will charge you a lot
    Lie to your face
    Stab you in the back
    Because he knows when you part ways he is going to his palatial home and you are going to jail

    ReplyDelete
  3. to all you no it alls read two opinions, one by judge sofaer in the 80's and the second by judge glasser in the early 90's. both found the "legend" to be a dispicable man whose conduct brought dishonor upon the law

    ReplyDelete
  4. larosa, bersten and rosen llpJun 18, 2011, 2:28:00 AM

    maerry jerry is a mob facorite not for the results he gets but for doing what he is told. he HAS made a Faustian bargain

    ReplyDelete
  5. carmine the doctorJun 18, 2011, 3:50:00 PM

    the asshole is lucky he is not dead. his career is littered with broken promises and long jail sentences. he has not won a case in thirty years, i don't count the ones johnny boy fixed. he is the master of the cash payment. a legal con man

    ReplyDelete

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