Opinion ID: 654592
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gotti

Text: 22 Bruce Cutler served as Gotti's attorney in previous criminal trials in federal court. Prior to trial, the government moved to disqualify Cutler from acting as Gotti's attorney. Although the motion also dealt with the disqualification of other Gotti attorneys, only the disqualification of Cutler has been challenged on appeal. 23 The district court granted the motion to disqualify on several grounds. United States v. Gotti, 771 F.Supp. 552 (E.D.N.Y.1991). Judge Glasser, in a thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion, found that Cutler had acted as house counsel to the Gambino Crime Family by receiving benefactor payments from Gotti to represent others in the criminal enterprise. Id. at 560. The district court based this conclusion on excerpts from the government's taped transcripts, which left little doubt that Gotti paid significant sums of money for legal services rendered to others. Id. 24 The district court further determined that Cutler's participation in government-taped conversations at which illegal activity was discussed would impair his representation of Gotti. Id. at 562-63. Specifically, the court noted that Cutler's mere presence at trial could make him an unsworn witness before the jury in explaining his own conduct and interpreting Gotti's conversations on the tapes. Id. at 563. Even if Gotti waived the conflict, and even if the government did not intend to call Cutler as a witness, the district court found that Cutler's representation would still compromise the integrity of the proceeding. Id. 25 Third, the district court found that Cutler's prior representation of Michael Coiro, a potential government witness, gave rise to a conflict of interest. Id. The court reasoned that this conflict mandated disqualification both because Cutler was privy to events surrounding an obstruction charge, and because Cutler's cross examination of Coiro at trial would be circumscribed by the prior representation. Id. at 563-65. 26 Finally, the district court also found disqualification warranted because of the implication by Gotti in taped conversations that he had paid Cutler money under the table. Id. at 565. This made Cutler a potential accomplice as well as a potential witness to Gotti's tax fraud. 27 In conclusion, the district court noted that it was mindful that disqualification is a drastic remedy for conflict problems, but that no less severe alternatives were viable. Id. at 566. The court therefore held that the grave peril the continued representation by [Cutler] poses to the integrity of the trial process mandated disqualification. Id. 28 Gotti now appeals the district court's ruling, arguing that the disqualification was an abuse of discretion. We disagree, and affirm the disqualification on two grounds: (1) Cutler's role as house counsel to the Gambino Crime Family; and (2) Cutler's anticipated role as an unsworn witness for Gotti had he been allowed to serve. We note that, importantly, Gotti does not challenge the effectiveness of his replacement trial counsel. Although the government cannot justify an otherwise unwarranted disqualification by arguing that the disqualification did not result in the accused receiving ineffective assistance of counsel, seeUnited States v. Diozzi, 807 F.2d 10, 16 (1st Cir.1986), the fact that Gotti received more than competent representation is an additional consideration strongly supporting the district court's otherwise entirely correct ruling.
29 Gotti argues that the facts before the district court did not merit the conclusion that Cutler had acted as house counsel to the Gambino Crime Family. Rather, Gotti argues that Cutler was merely his personal attorney. 30 Ethical considerations warn against an attorney accepting fees from someone other than her client. As we stated in a different context, the acceptance of such benefactor payments may subject an attorney to undesirable outside influence and raises an ethical question as to whether the attorney's loyalties are with the client or the payor. In re Grand Jury Subpoena Served Upon John Doe, 781 F.2d 238, 248 n. 6 (2d Cir.1985) (in banc ), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1108, 106 S.Ct. 1515, 89 L.Ed.2d 914 (1986). In this context, proof of house counsel can be used by the government to help establish the existence of the criminal enterprise under RICO, by showing the connections among the participants. SeeUnited States v. Simmons, 923 F.2d 934, 949 (2d Cir.) (holding that government can use evidence of benefactor payments to prove existence of enterprise), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2018, 114 L.Ed.2d 104 (1991); United States v. Castellano, 610 F.Supp. 1151 (S.D.N.Y.1985) (disqualifying attorney because attorney's acceptance of benefactor payments could be used to prove existence of enterprise). 31 Contrary to Gotti's assertions, there was sufficient evidence for the district court to determine that Cutler had acted as house counsel to the Gambino Crime Family. For example, the court cited one conversation in which Gotti, in the time-honored tradition of legal clients, complained about his legal fees: 32 I gave youse [sic] 300,000 in one year. Youse [sic] didn't defend me. I wasn't even mentioned in none of these [expletive deleted] things. I had nothing to do with none of these [expletive deleted] people. What the [expletive deleted] is your beef? ... Before youse [sic] made a court appearance, youse [sic] got 40,000, 30,000 and 25,000. That's without counting [attorney] John Pollok.... You standing there in the hallway with me last night, and you're plucking me.... Tony Lee's lawyer, but you're plucking me. I'm paying for it.... Where does it end? Gambino Crime Family? This is the Shargel, Cutler and who do you call it Crime Family. 33 771 F.Supp. at 555. Gotti thus demonstrated that he was incurring the legal fees for representation of others. As support for disqualification, the government indicated that it would introduce the testimony of Michael Coiro, who would testify that he had paid nothing to Cutler and another attorney for their services to him, presumably because Gotti paid for his defense. 34 Cutler's role as house counsel to the Gambinos raised a credible issue of the ethical propriety of his representation of Gotti in this case. An attorney cannot properly serve two masters, and the evidence before the district court indicated that Cutler had represented the Gambino Family as a whole. Moreover, Cutler's status as house counsel was potentially part of the proof of the Gambino criminal enterprise. We cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in disqualifying Cutler on this basis, considering the volume of proof of Cutler's proximity to the affairs of the Gambino Crime Family offered by the government in this case.
35 An even stronger basis for disqualification, however, was the possibility that Cutler would function in his representational capacity as an unsworn witness for Gotti. An attorney acts as an unsworn witness when his relationship to his client results in his having first-hand knowledge of the events presented at trial. If the attorney is in a position to be a witness, ethical codes may require him to withdraw his representation. See Model Code of Professional Responsibility DR 5-102(A) (1992). 36 Even if the attorney is not called, however, he can still be disqualified, since his performance as an advocate can be impaired by his relationship to the events in question. For example, the attorney may be constrained from making certain arguments on behalf of his client because of his own involvement, or may be tempted to minimize his own conduct at the expense of his client. Moreover, his role as advocate may give his client an unfair advantage, because the attorney can subtly impart to the jury his first-hand knowledge of the events without having to swear an oath or be subject to cross examination. SeeUnited States v. McKeon, 738 F.2d 26, 34-35 (2d Cir.1984) (requiring disqualification where attorney would be essentially acting as both an advocate and a witness); United States v. Cunningham, 672 F.2d 1064, 1075 (2d Cir.1982) (upholding disqualification where an attorney would act as an unsworn witness for defendant); Castellano, 610 F.Supp. at 1167 (finding that attorney's appearance at counsel table would itself distort the factfinding process). 37 This is different from the situation in Wheat, since the conflict in Wheat--multiple representation--was a conflict inuring to the detriment of the accused. In such a case, waiver by the accused of the conflict can conceivably alleviate the constitutional defect, so long as the representation by counsel does not seriously compromise the integrity of the judicial process. When an attorney is an unsworn witness, however, the detriment is to the government, since the defendant gains an unfair advantage, and to the court, since the factfinding process is impaired. Waiver by the defendant is ineffective in curing the impropriety in such situations, since he is not the party prejudiced. SeeCunningham, 672 F.2d at 1074-75. 38 The district court disqualified Cutler partially on the ground that his representation of Gotti would place him in the role of such an unsworn witness. The clearest support for this finding was Cutler's presence during the Ravenite Apartment discussions taped by the government. The government was legitimately concerned that, when Cutler argued before the jury for a particular interpretation of the tapes, his interpretation would be given added credibility due to his presence in the room when the statements were made. This would have given Gotti an unfair advantage, since Cutler would not have had to take an oath in presenting his interpretation, but could merely frame it in the form of legal argument. 39 Gotti argues, however, that the district court erred in disqualifying Cutler where the government had no intention of calling Cutler. He also maintains that Cutler's presence and participation on the government's tapes could have been redacted to eliminate references to and statements by Cutler, thereby eliminating the unsworn witness problem. The first contention is meritless, since the district court explicitly and correctly noted that whether the government will or will not call ... Cutler ... has no significance for this motion. 771 F.Supp. at 562. The second contention is equally unavailing, since the district court explicitly found that redaction of the tapes would have eviscerated the government's case. We are not in a position to second-guess the district court's clearly supported factual findings on review. Moreover, we agree with the district court that the government's case should not be unfairly impaired so that an accused can continue with conflicted counsel. 40 The unsworn witness problem arises not only in relation to the Ravenite tapes, but to other grounds cited by the district court in support of disqualification. For example, the court found that Gotti's references to Cutler's acceptance of fees under the table were relevant to the government's case on the tax fraud count. Had Cutler argued Gotti's defense to that count, he would not only have had a conflict of interest but he would have been arguing as to events in which he was allegedly involved. 41 We are aware that disqualification is a drastic remedy to the unsworn witness problem. We are also, however, cognizant that this is an unusual case, in that Cutler had allegedly entangled himself to an extraordinary degree in the activities of the Gambino Crime Family: he is recorded on government tapes when discussions of allegedly illegal activity took place; he is allegedly involved in the tax fraud count against Gotti; his role as house counsel could be used to prove the criminal enterprise; and his representation of government witnesses caused a conflict with his representation of Gotti. Although we are cognizant of the right of the accused to secure representation, we are also conscious of the institutional interest in protecting the integrity of the judicial process. If an attorney will not perform his ethical duty, it is up to the courts to perform it for him. Bruce Cutler had no place representing John Gotti in this case, and the district court properly determined that he should be disqualified.