NY lawyer guilty of witness tampering in drug case (AP)

[Yahoo!_news]

AP - A high-profile criminal defense attorney was convicted Thursday of plotting with a South American businessman to use bribes and violence to silence witnesses in the client's drug-trafficking case.

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A federal jury in Brooklyn deliberated nearly a week before finding Robert Simels guilty of multiple witness-tampering charges. An associate in Simels' firm also was convicted.

Simels, 62, leaned forward and stared at the jury as the verdict was read, but showed no other reaction. Afterward, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson ruled that, despite his "moral outrage as a judge" and the objections of prosecutors, the defendant could remain free on bail and under house arrest.

The jurors had heard secretly recorded conversations in which Simels muses about needing to "eliminate" or "neutralize" key government witnesses — terms he said were not meant literally. The judge said the evidence showed that if the plot hatched as part of a sting was real, "people easily could have been murdered, and Simels knew it."

Prosecutors said Simels faces a maximum of about 15 years in prison at sentencing on Nov. 20. His attorney, Gerald Shargel, said he would appeal the verdict.

"I'm deeply saddened for Bob and his family," Shargel said. "Obviously, he's distressed."