Jury Finds Law Firm Ran Racket
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One of New York City’s most prominent negligence-case lawyers and six associates were convicted yesterday of bribing witnesses and fabricating evidence to win millions of dollars in personal-injury cases. In a trial that came to symbolize the worst excesses of personal-injury law, the lawyer, Morris J. Eisen, was found guilty of operating his 40-member law firm in the Woolworth Building as a racketeering enterprise. “I’m not aware of any comparable conviction involving a law firm in New York City or anywhere else,” said the chief prosecutor, Jerome C. Roth, who added that a few lawyers specializing in negligence cases had previously been convicted of less extensive racketeering charges. Jury Deliberates 12 Days The jury in Federal District Court in Brooklyn took 12 days to convict the defendants. The four-month trial aroused intense interest among lawyers. It featured prosecutors presenting evidence showing that the defendants had smashed a tire rim with a sledgehammer to exaggerate an automobile accident, used a pickax to enlarge a pothole and bribed a witness to give the same testimony in two different cases. More : query.nytimes.com |