US attorney sentenced to life for murder

Paul Bergrin, a once-prominent defense attorney in New Jersey, received an indefinite prison sentence on Monday for murder and racketeering.

During his tenure, the former federal prosecutor used his law firm for conducting criminal activities like facilitating drug trafficking and helping run a prostitution ring, Reuters reported on Monday.

He also arranged the murder of an FBI informant, Kemo DeShawn McCray, according to the report.

The convicted attorney, once dubbed by New York Magazine the “Baddest Lawyer in the History of Jersey”, had defended US troops who were accused of committing atrocities at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

After his first and unsuccessful trial in 2011, 57-year-old Bergrin was finally convicted in March 2013 on 23 counts including racketeering and plotting to kill a federal witness.

McCray, the federal witness, was shot dead on a Newark street in 2004 after he had given police some information about one of Bergrin’s clients, the report said.

On drug trafficking, he was convicted of smuggling hundreds of pounds of cocaine to connect suppliers with distributors and also storing the narcotics at a restaurant he ran.

He also assisted Jason Itzler, a famous pimp, who operated a brothel. In 2012, Itzler received a 4-year prison sentence for promoting prostitution, criminal sale of a controlled substance as well as money laundering.

“The sentence reflects the extreme seriousness of his crimes and the extent to which he betrayed the criminal justice system,” said Paul Fishman, one of his former colleagues, and the current US Attorney for New Jersey. “We just can’t tolerate that.”