Paul Bergrin Trial: Where's the Outrage?

I am trying to limit my posts on the Paul Bergrin trial to the end of week notes with points for the prevailing party, but every time I look at the news on the case a different thought comes to mind. This one concerns Bergrin's fellow attorneys – a reference to every attorney in this country. Paul Bergrin is a strong defender and a champion attorney that gave anyone he defended a zealous legal defense. Many could learn from him.

I would love to watch this trial and would be there if not for personal issues. I have always been an attorney watcher and Paul Bergrin in a courtroom would be downright exciting to me. He has a commanding presence and when he speaks, everyone is listening and all eyes are focused on him and nothing else.

Consider the idiom: If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

What criminal defense attorney does not, at one point or another, associate with criminals? Paul made the mistake of falling for jezebel, but does he deserve life in prison for it? I read the testimony quoted by the reporters from news covering the trial (excellent coverage by the way) and realize the case for exactly what it is: Criminal defendants and informants willing to say or do anything, including throw their own defender under a bus, to knock time off their sentences.

If you practice criminal defense then you've met at least one just like the members of this group and probably many. Be outraged that a fellow attorney has been indicted and is on trial on the word of these losers!

Thus far the list of government witnesses includes an FBI agent that should be held liable for an informant's death, at least in part, and a bunch of convicted drug traffickers seeking time off for cooperation with the government. How many more drug traffickers will the feds call to the stand? Does it matter? One is no different than the other, so whether 1 or 20 testify, it should result in the same verdict: not guilty on all counts.

In respect to the government witnesses, this trial reminds me of the Nino Lyons trial in Orlando federal court back in 2001. In the Lyons case, federal prosecutors had a parade of criminal “witnesses,” though each resided in prison at the time of testimony – 31 convicted felons in prison testified against Nino Lyons to get time off their own sentences . Somehow the jury bought it, hook, line, and sinker, but the convictions were overturned by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell and he was eventually exonerated completely in the case. Interested in the Nino Lyons fiasco? Read about the USA Today investigation:

Prosecutors' conduct can tip justice scales

Be outraged about what they are doing to Paul Bergrin and that he is on trial to begin with!