The day before Thanksgiving, Paul Bergrin, the ex-fed prosecutor who became a high-profile defense attorney representing rappers and gangbangers, had plenty to be thankful for.
That’s because a federal judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial after a jury deadlocked over whether Bergrin, 55, helped orchestrate a 2004 murder of an FBI witness in a drug case against his client, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.
The paper reported that the trial was ” based on testimony that lacked hard evidence.”
“The hung jury brings an end to a tense and often-theatrical trial that had featured steely accusations among the lawyers; screaming in the courtroom; angry, nervous witnesses; admonishments by the judge; and — on more than one occasion — the judge himself questioning whether the government had presented enough evidence to convict Bergrin,” the paper wrote.
The paper quoted U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman as saying in a statement: “While it is disappointing the jury was unable to reach a verdict, we are fully prepared for the next trial.”
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