May 22, 2014

Bernie Kerik's Lawyer Slams the Screen Door in the Face of Joe Tacopina

Seriously, Bernie should have his own radio show.....it's always interesting to hear the former top cop's take on things, particularly when we have all of the major security issues and debates in the United States today. Agree or disagree, most citizens want to know why police do the things they do or act in a certain way. Like it or not, we are governed by law enforcement and we need law enforcement.......hey--what makes the cops tick.......personally I'm the first one to argue with the police and criticize but also the first one to call the police in a tight and uncomfortable situation. In all of the news today the police side of the situation gives us more insight into government and police actions.

Bernie is a good talker and easy for the average citizen to understand......hope to hear more from Bernie on the radio......cl...the ronnie republic

Bernie Kerik's lawyer slams Joe Tacopina, says letter to feds violates ethics

In an email to the Daily News, Burstein strongly denied that his letter urging prosecutors to file perjury charges against Kerik was an ethics violation.

BY TERI THOMPSON , MICHAEL O’KEEFFE

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 2:00 AM

The lawyer for former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik says Joe Tacopina's lawyer committed an ethics infraction when he asked prosecutors that Kerik be charged with perjury.

Joe Tacopina should have checked the rules governing the conduct of lawyers before he sent a letter to prosecutors urging them to hit Bernie Kerik with perjury charges, a lawyer for the former New York police commissioner said on Tuesday.

Tim Parlatore said he believes the letter written by Tacopina lawyer Judd Burstein to the U.S. Attorney’s office in White Plains violates Rule 3.4(e) of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, which state that an attorney may not “present, participate in presenting, or threaten to present criminal charges solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.”

In an email to the Daily News, Burstein strongly denied that his letter urging prosecutors to file perjury charges against Kerik was an ethics violation.

“This has nothing to do with gaining an advantage in a civil matter (and certainly not ‘solely’), but all to do with justice,” Burstein said.

Kerik filed a federal malpractice lawsuit in January and a New York bar complaint in December that claims Tacopina, who was Alex Rodriguez’s lead attorney in his failed appeal of his Major League Baseball doping suspension, cooperated with the government in the 2007 prosecution of Kerik for federal tax evasion, fraud and lying to White House officials vetting him for Homeland Security chief.

Parlatore told The News he will amend Kerik’s lawsuit to include the letter Burstein sent to prosecutors Elliot Jacobson and Perry Carbone last week on behalf of Tacopina. He said he will also supplement the bar complaint with the claims Burstein made in the letter.

“It seems to me it’s pretty clear they’re trying to gain an advantage in a civil matter, and Rule 3.4(e) specifically prohibits such conduct,” Parlatore said. “And I will leave it to the appropriate authorities to decide if Mr. Tacopina and Mr. Burstein have violated that duty.”

Burstein wrote to the prosecutors that Kerik either lied when he pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion or when he filed his complaints against Tacopina.

“I know that lawyers in civil litigation often try to convince prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against an opposing party, and the purpose of this letter is to do just that,” Burstein wrote. “But this case is different.”

Parlatore said Burstein seems more interested in litigating the case outside of court than in it.

“The proper way to fight a lawsuit is to pursue the complaint,” Parlatore said. “If Mr. Tacopina really had nothing to fear in this lawsuit he’d be happy to get under oath in court and talk about what he did. . . . You don’t send a letter to a U.S. Attorney and say, ‘arrest this person.’”

Burstein’s letter is not part of the court file, and Parlatore only received it Tuesday night, after learning of its contents in a newspaper report that appeared Monday. Parlatore told The News that the lawsuit was mischaracterized in that report, which said that Kerik now claims to be innocent of the charges that landed him in prison.

“Mr. Kerik is not claiming that he’s innocent — but that Mr. Tacopina failed to properly represent him,” Parlatore said.

Kerik does claim in the suit and the bar complaint that Tacopina, who represented Kerik in a state case that led to the federal charges, gave the feds information crucial to Kerik’s defense without informing or receiving consent from his client.

Parlatore said he hopes Jacobson and Carbone, the assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted Kerik, would not take the perjury charges seriously. Kerik went to prison in 2010 and was released last spring. “Certainly, (the U.S. Attorney’s office) has an interest in protecting (Tacopina),” Parlatore said. “But I would hope and expect the AUSA wouldn’t take any interest in this letter.”

Bernie is a good talker and easy for the average citizen to understand......hope to hear more from Bernie on the radio......cl...the ronnie republic

copied from thenewyorkdailynews.com

Seriously, Bernie should have his own radio show.....it's always interesting to hear the former top cop's take on things, particularly when we have all of the major security issues and debates in the United States today. Agree or disagree, most citizens want to know why police do the things they do or act in a certain way. Like it or not, we are governed by law enforcement and we need law enforcement.......hey--what makes the cops tick.......personally I'm the first one to argue with the police and criticize but also the first one to call the police in a tight and uncomfortable situation. In all of the news today the police side of the situation gives us more insight into government and police actions.

Bernie is a good talker and easy for the average citizen to understand......hope to hear more from Bernie on the radio......cl...the ronnie republic