Case against him is based on lies, says N.J. lawyer

NEWARK, N.J. - A once-prominent defense attorney who made a reputation representing people accused of murder and drug trafficking urged jurors to reject murder charges against him, saying the government's case is based on lies by the type of people he used to call clients.

"When people are confronted with spending extraordinary amounts of time in jail, they will say anything and they will do anything to gain their release," Paul Bergrin told a jury during a 90-minute opening statement in U.S. District Court, where he is representing himself. "The only way for them to do that is to cooperate with the government."

The trial stems from his 2009 arrest in what the government says was a racketeering enterprise involving drugs, prostitution, money laundering, and witness tampering.

Those charges were severed by a federal judge, and this trial focuses solely on the killing of Deshawn "Kemo" McCray, a government informant who was scheduled to testify against one of Bergrin's clients, William Baskerville.

Bergrin faces one count each of murder and murder conspiracy for providing McCray's name to Baskerville's associates, one of whom later fatally shot McCray on a Newark street in March 2004. According to prosecutors, Bergrin told the men, "No Kemo, no case."

In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gay portrayed Bergrin as a "house counsel" for a Newark-based drug operation who gradually became involved in the drug trade himself and saw his own world about to split apart if McCray were to testify.

"That provides the motive for this crime," Gay told jurors. "He had a personal motive at this point; his neck was personally on the line."

Bergrin, who has represented Queen Latifah, Lil' Kim, and other rappers, developed a reputation as a hard-nosed defense attorney over the last decade in North Jersey. Before that, he worked as a prosecutor for a dozen years in Essex County and in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark.

He gained wider notoriety in 2005 when he represented Sgt. Javal Davis, a New Jersey Army reservist charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse case. Davis ultimately pleaded guilty to reduced charges and spent less than four months behind bars.

Suspicions that Bergrin may have become too close to the criminal element he represented were bolstered when, two weeks before his 2009 arrest in New Jersey, he pleaded guilty in New York to conspiracy to promote prostitution, a misdemeanor, in exchange for probation in a case involving a high-priced Manhattan escort agency run by one of his clients.

During Monday's opening statement, Bergrin was by turns combative and pleading with the jury, at one point telling the panel, "There is no tomorrow for me. You are the last line of defense for me in my quest for justice."

He admitted mentioning McCray's name to Baskerville's family and others but said Baskerville had deduced McCray's identity from the government's complaint filing anyway. He emphatically denied attending a meeting where prosecutors said the "no Kemo, no case" comment was made, and denied suggesting any harm come to McCray.

"No one even hinted to me that one hair on Kemo's head would be harmed," he said.

During afternoon testimony, an FBI agent described to jurors how McCray was recruited as an informant. The session ended prematurely when some jurors' headphones malfunctioned as prosecutors attempted to play surveillance tapes made of McCray's drug buys.

The trial is expected to last several weeks. A key witness for the prosecution is expected to be Anthony Young, an associate of Baskerville's who prosecutors say shot McCray. Bergrin said Young has changed his story numerous times and initially identified a friend as the triggerman.

In a precaution generally reserved for organized-crime or gang cases, jurors' names are not being released to the news media or to defense attorneys.