Legal News

Former Prosecutor Charged with Plot to ?Neutralize? Witnesses

By Dan Slater

Whoa boy: another week, another allegation of lawyer wrongdoing. A criminal defense lawyer and a former New York assistant AG, Robert Simels was arrested yesterday and charged by EDNY prosecutors in an alleged plot to “neutralize” witnesses who were willing to testify against one of his clients, Shaheed Khan, an accused drug kingpin with reputed ties to the Guyanese government. Here’s the NYT story, and here’s the criminal complaint.

“We intend to mount a vigorous defense,” said Gerald L. Shargel, Simels’s lawyer. “It’s easy for prosecutors to make an accusation, but it’s quite another thing for them to prove it.” Simels (U. of Kentucky, New York Law School), who faces charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice, was released on a $3.5 million bond

According to his Web site, while special assistant AG for New York’s special prosecutor’s office, he investigated corruption by public officials. As a private lawyer, his clients have included the Murder Inc. record label; the former New York Jets player Mark Gastineau; the mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill; and Kenneth McGriff, the drug lord known as Supreme.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 11, 2008 (boomark / email).