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Profile: Robert M. Simels

Kareem Fahim from the New York Times reports on the life and career of NYC corruption-buster-turned-criminal-defense-lawyer Robert Simels who was convicted last August of witness tampering:

The lawyer who once seemed incorruptible was convicted of a crime that strikes at the very heart of the justice system: arranging to bribe or harm witnesses preparing to testify against one of his clients. Last week, a federal judge, John Gleeson, sentenced Mr. Simels, 62, to 14 years in prison. It fell to a young, hungry prosecutor, just as Mr. Simels was 35 years ago, to say what many of his friends privately acknowledged: "This defendant, of course, should have known better," said Morris J. Fodeman, chief of the public corruption unit in the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn.

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Defense lawyer Robert Simels gets 14 years for intimidating witnesses

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Lawyer Convicted Of Witness Tampering

Prominent NYC defense lawyer Robert Simels and his associate Arienne Irving have been convicted of witness tampering as reported by Kati Cornell for the New York Post:

Robert Simels, 62, was caught on tape ordering killer gang member-turned-informant Selwyn Vaughn to "neutralize" all the key witnesses -- as well as their families, friends and lovers -- against Guyanese drug lord Roger Khan. When it came to one potentially devastating witness, a cooperator named David Clarke, Simels said, "I think their whole case falls apart if Clarke is neutralized by us or neutralized by us by cross-examination."

Simels previously has represented infamous mobster clients such as Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill.

John Marzulli and Corky Siemaszko from the Daily News write:

Robert Simels sat back in his chair and looked furious as the Brooklyn Federal Court jury rendered a verdict that could send him to jail for life. His associate, Arienne Irving, who was also convicted of conspiring to tamper with witnesses, laid her head on the defense table and sobbed.

Defense Lawyer Becomes Defendant

The trial began yesterday against prominent defense lawyer Robert Simels who is accused of "plotting with a client to threaten and bribe witnesses to prevent them from testifying" as reported by Mark Fass for the New York Law Journal:

"A license to practice law is not a license to break the law," Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel D. Brownell told the federal jury before an overflowing courtroom in Brooklyn. In defending his client, drug kingpin Shaheed Khan, Simels employed a "win at all costs" strategy, promoting a plan of bribes and intimidation to ensure Khan's acquittal, Brownell said. "When Simels said, 'I'm going to do whatever it takes to get him out of there,'" Brownell said, "that was no idle boast."

Simels is "known for representing high-profile drug dealers and members of organized crime families -- including Henry Hill, the mobster played by Ray Liotta in 'GoodFellas."