Bernie Kerik lost a legal battle on Wednesday, but not the weapons to continue the fight.
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A judge denied a request by Kerik to release documents that detail his former attorney’s conversations with prosecutors before the former New York police commissioner was indicted in 2007 on fraud and tax-evasion charges, but she left open the possibility Kerik and his attorney could obtain the records through civil-litigation discovery.
“This doesn’t stop us from getting the documents in the civil case, or from deposing Mr. Tacopina about his cooperation with prosecutors,” said Kerik’s attorney, Tim Parlatore.
The order by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska seemed to support Kerik’s central allegation in his bloody legal battle with brash celebrity lawyer Joe Tacopina: Kerik claims that Tacopina, his former lawyer and business partner, revealed privileged information with federal prosecutors that later led to the ex-top cop’s felony indictment.
“The Tacopina documents contain details about the government’s criminal investigations, including information about cooperating witnesses,” Preska wrote. “Disclosure of these documents might reveal investigatory tactics and might also discourage potential cooperators in ongoing or future government investigations.”
Kerik had asked Preska to lift the protective order on records describing five secret proffer sessions in which Tacopina allegedly met with federal prosecutors before the 2007 indictment that led to Kerik’s three-year prison sentence. Prosecutors Perry Carbone and Elliott Jacobson requested a hearing with Preska to determine if Kerik had violated the protective order by describing the proffer sessions in an amended complaint alleging legal malpractice the ex-commissioner filed against his estranged friend earlier this year.
Preska ordered the prosecutors to huddle with Kerik and Parlatore, as well as with Tacopina and his lawyer Judd Burstein, and report to her about how they want to proceed on the hearing by Friday, Aug. 1.
Burstein told the Daily News earlier this year that his client would welcome the release of the files in the Kerik case. But when details about Tacopina’s meetings with prosecutors surfaced in Kerik’s court filings, Burstein called for a criminal probe of Kerik and Parlatore.
Tacopina and Lanny Davis, the Washington insider who represented Tacopina when he represented Alex Rodriguez’s legal team during the Yankee star’s disastrous effort to avoid a year-long steroid ban, have repeatedly said that no proffer sessions took place.
Kerik has sued Tacopina for racketeering, fraud and malpractice — claims that Tacopina denies. Tacopina has sued Kerik for defamation, and is also fighting a complaint Kerik lodged in December with the disciplinary committee of the New York State bar.
“This doesn’t stop us from getting the documents in the civil case, or from deposing Mr. Tacopina about his cooperation with prosecutors,” said Kerik’s attorney, Tim Parlatore.
The order by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska seemed to support Kerik’s central allegation in his bloody legal battle with brash celebrity lawyer Joe Tacopina: Kerik claims that Tacopina, his former lawyer and business partner, revealed privileged information with federal prosecutors that later led to the ex-top cop’s felony indictment.
“The Tacopina documents contain details about the government’s criminal investigations, including information about cooperating witnesses,” Preska wrote. “Disclosure of these documents might reveal investigatory tactics and might also discourage potential cooperators in ongoing or future government investigations.”
Kerik had asked Preska to lift the protective order on records describing five secret proffer sessions in which Tacopina allegedly met with federal prosecutors before the 2007 indictment that led to Kerik’s three-year prison sentence. Prosecutors Perry Carbone and Elliott Jacobson requested a hearing with Preska to determine if Kerik had violated the protective order by describing the proffer sessions in an amended complaint alleging legal malpractice the ex-commissioner filed against his estranged friend earlier this year.
Preska ordered the prosecutors to huddle with Kerik and Parlatore, as well as with Tacopina and his lawyer Judd Burstein, and report to her about how they want to proceed on the hearing by Friday, Aug. 1.
Burstein told the Daily News earlier this year that his client would welcome the release of the files in the Kerik case. But when details about Tacopina’s meetings with prosecutors surfaced in Kerik’s court filings, Burstein called for a criminal probe of Kerik and Parlatore.
Tacopina and Lanny Davis, the Washington insider who represented Tacopina when he represented Alex Rodriguez’s legal team during the Yankee star’s disastrous effort to avoid a year-long steroid ban, have repeatedly said that no proffer sessions took place.
Kerik has sued Tacopina for racketeering, fraud and malpractice — claims that Tacopina denies. Tacopina has sued Kerik for defamation, and is also fighting a complaint Kerik lodged in December with the disciplinary committee of the New York State bar.
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