federal grand jury has returned a new criminal indictment against once-prominent Newark lawyer Paul W. Bergrin that directly implicates him in a June 2007 bribery scandal aimed at helping a convicted felon escape gun charges.
The 138-page superseding indictment, returned last Thursday but made public today, charges Bergrin with four new criminal counts, including one which details allegations that Bergin and others pulled off a plan to use a fall guy — referred to in the indictment as “J.M.” — to confess to a gun possession charge involving a .22-caliber revolver against an alleged “criminal client” and employee of Bergrin’s law firm, who is referred as “A.W.”, federal authorities said.
The indictment says that J.M.’s false confession, made in exchange for a payment, helped A.W. get a parole-board hearing acquittal and get released from jail in 2007.
The 33-count indictment also says that once “A.W.” was released from the Essex County Correctional Facility, he returned to assisting Bergrin and others “in distributing kilogram quantities of cocaine.”
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Trial date set for ex-Newark lawyer accused of plotting to kill witnesses

• Racketeering charges are reinstated against N.J. lawyer accused of plotting to kill potential witness
• Prosecutors go mum in case of high-profile lawyer accused of plotting to kill witnesses
• Newark lawyer Paul Bergrin, charged with murder, witness intimidation, returns to federal prison
• Star-Ledger archives: The Paul Bergrin case

Bergrin, 55, a former federal prosecutor turned high-profile defense attorney, whose legal clients included entertainers like Lil’ Kim and Queen Latifah, is facing racketeering and other charges ranging from murder-for-hire to running a high-end Manhattan call-girl operation.
His trial, long delayed because of a series of appeals, is scheduled for Oct. 11.
Bergrin’s defense attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said in an email today that the new indictment “appears to vastly expand the charges against Mr. Bergrin, beyond what was already a massive, unwieldy indictment, piling charge upon charge in a way that will make a fair trial, as a practical matter, impossible.”
The allegations made public Monday against Bergrin contains facts and dates that mirror facts surrounding a guilty plea by Clifford J. Minor, a former Essex County prosecutor and former Newark mayoral candidate.
In April, Minor admitted to trying to help Abdul Williams, 34, of East Orange, escape .22-caliber revolver gun-possession charges in June 2007 by serving as lawyer for Jamal Muhammad, 32, of Newark, when Muhammad went to falsely confess to police that he had illegally possessed the revolver. In pleading guilty, Minor admitted he knew Williams had a string of felony convictions before his June 2007 arrest and that Muhammad would face a lighter sentence for the crime.
Minor, 68, is slated to be sentenced on July 18 in federal court in Newark for counts related to the scandal, federal authorities said.
But Monday Minor’s defense lawyer, Thomas R. Ashley, said there is no connection between Minor and Bergrin.
“There was never any interaction whatsoever between Paul Bergrin and Cliff Minor with respect to Abdul Williams and/or Mr. Muhammad, who was Mr. Minor’s client,” he said.
Minor and Bergin never had any business relationship and had never talked about Williams and Muhammad, Ashley said.
The indictment also added a count related to a murder allegation against Bergrin that says that he aided in the killing of a key witness referred to as K.D.M. who may have testified against a cocaine trafficker.
Several people originally charged along with Bergrin have already pleaded guilty and implicated him, including a Monmouth County cocaine trafficker, Vincente Esteves.
Esteves said he worked with Bergrin to plot the assassination of a potential witness against Esteves himself known as “Junior the Panamanian.” The new indictment extended the time frame for some racketeering counts against Bergrin and dropped counts related to mortage fraud and witness tampering. The indictment also named Alejandro Barraza-Castro, an alleged criminal associate of Bergrin’s.