Lying to the Court, Valerie, and People V. Bergin

Recently this month, the backroom tables at bar associations often witnessed discussions on the case of Detroit city attorney Valerie Colbert-Osamuede charged for lying to the court. Of course, Valerie's case had extra spice because it was linked to the text-message scandal that devastated the career of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Valerie was charged for lying to the judge over the scandal and then lying to the attorney discipline panel. Valerie received a ninety day suspension and is still on city payroll. However, Valerie can't beat Bergrin when it comes to committing professional misconduct and getting away with it.

Paul Bergrin was a truly famous federal prosecutor who later became a defense lawyer for celebrities and street gangs. One of his most famous cases was defending the military officials charged at Abu Ghraib human rights violations.


Okay, so what did he do that was so interesting? Mr. Bergrin, who was responsibly representing his client, one Jacob Itzler who ran an escort service, was moved to protect the business interests of his client when the client was arrested in January 2005. Mr. Bergrin and two of his associates, happily took charge of running the beauties of TriBeCa call-girl service, and in 2007, were indicted for disguising the proceeds of the escort center through shell companies. Allegedly, the amount discovered only in credit card receipts was more than $800,000.

While the original indictment on counts of felony money laundering and promoting prostitution could have taken Bergrin to prison for at least 25 years, what came to the fore was the truly horrendous fact that he had lied to the judge. Consequently, Bergrin walked away with a light probationary sentence by pleading guilty on just two minor misdemeanors.

The law is a bit tougher on prosecutors who lie and in United States v. Jacobson, 1982, the 2nd Circuit federal court excoriated the prosecutor by name and remarked, “We expect those government counsel involved to take heed of the seriousness with which we view inaccurate representations of fact, and those who supervise them to take affirmative steps to prevent a recurrence.”

But lawyers keep lying to the court. The motives vary from trying to protect a client to trying to protect one's own skin.

In the case of Valerie, the blame was that she did not disclose a confidential agreement meant to cover up text messages between Kilpatrick and a top aide, and the role those messages had in settling a 2007 lawsuit by a whistleblower with more than eight million dollars of public money.

She said she plain forgot about that deal.

The Attorney Discipline Board panel reports, “One is hard-pressed to believe an attorney involved in the litigation would misplace, forget or simply lose sight of such an important document.” But they had no other option but to accept the explanation. And the penalty with regard to precedents was a nine-month suspension.

Seems, professional misconduct, inasmuch as it applies to lying to the court, is also used as a gateway to divert attention from more serious offenses, if Bergrin and Valerie is to be read through.