Gerald "Jerry" Lawrence Shargel (October 5, 1944 – July 16, 2022) was an American
defense attorney
A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...
who was based in New York City and generally considered one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the country.
Early life and education
Shargel was born in
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. He attended
Bound Brook High School
Bound Brook High School is a comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Bound Brook, in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Bound ...
and graduated in 1966 from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, where his mother worked as one of its math department’s secretaries, and in 1969 from
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty.
Brookly ...
, joining the New York bar shortly thereafter.
Career
Shargel was widely regarded as one of the best criminal defense attorneys in New York. A 1998 profile in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' referred to him as "regarded on Centre Street as a brilliant tactician and a very good trial lawyer with a successful white-collar practice". In receiving the
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...
Award for Outstanding Criminal Law Practitioner by the
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 2006, he was referred to as "one of the most brilliant criminal defense attorneys in America… quite possibly the finest of his generation".
In a 1991 federal case against the
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...
, Shargel was initially slated to represent
underboss
Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underbo ...
Sammy Gravano
Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945) is an American former mobster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family's boss, by agreeing to testify as a ...
. However, Judge
I. Leo Glasser
Israel Leo Glasser (born April 6, 1924), also known as I. Leo Glasser or Leo Glasser, is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Education and career
Born in New York City, ...
barred Shargel and
Bruce Cutler
Bruce Cutler (born April 29, 1948) is an American criminal defense lawyer best known for having defended John Gotti, and for media appearances as a legal commentator.
Life and career
Cutler's father, Murray Cutler, was a New York City detect ...
from representing, respectively, Gravano and Gotti, agreeing with prosecutors' assertion that the lawyers were "in-house counsel" to the Gambinos. Prosecutors, including John Gleeson, contended that since Shargel and Cutler may have known about criminal activity, they were "part of the evidence" and liable to be called as witnesses.
Shargel's other high-profile clients included
Daniel Pelosi
Daniel Pelosi (born August 2, 1963) is an American man who is the convicted murderer of Wall Street financier Ted Ammon, and is the widower of Generosa Ammon.
Early life
Pelosi was born in Center Moriches, New York.
Relationship
Pelosi m ...
Ted Ammon
Robert Theodore Ammon (August 30, 1949 – October 20, 2001) was an American financier and investment banker. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was murdered in his home in 2001 by electrician Daniel Pelosi, who was convicted in 2004. Ammon and ...
, and Robert "Joe" Halderman in the matter of Halderman's extortion of television personality
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of ''Late Night with David Letterman' ...
. Shargel represented Halderman from October 2009 to March 9, 2010, when Halderman entered a plea-bargained guilty plea.
Shargel was well known for his courtroom style and dramatic presentations, which may have helped some of his clients to be found not guilty. For example, in 2005, Murder Inc. record label owners Irv and Chris Gotti (who are no relation to his aforementioned client
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
) were acquitted on all charges, possibly partially due to the effect of his courtroom demeanor on the jury—as there were a number of lively exchanges between him and
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
detective Anthony Castiglia during testimony.
In 2012 Shargel defended hip hop mogul James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, CEO of Czar Entertainment, in a federal trial in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, presided over by Judge Gleeson. Rosemond was convicted on all charges (including cocaine distribution, conspiracy, money laundering, firearms possession, and witness tampering), and on October 25, 2013, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Shargel also taught criminal law classes at his alma mater,
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty.
Brookly ...
, where he held the position of Practitioner-In-Residence, teaching courses on evidence, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy. He was also a frequent writer and commentator on legal issues that arise during high-profile criminal cases, which generate sustained national and regional media focus.
In 2018, he retired from active law practice, citing burnout.
Personal life
Shargel died from complications of
Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...
at his residence in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
on July 16, 2022, at the age of 77.
Notable clients
*
Amanda Bynes
Amanda Laura Bynes (born April 3, 1986) is an American actress, known for her work in television and film throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Bynes began her career as a child actress, working on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series ''All That'' ...
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
*Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt, Jr. who pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to the
Hussein
Hussein, Hussain, Hossein, Hossain, Huseyn, Husayn, Husein or Husain (; ar, حُسَيْن ), coming from the triconsonantal root Ḥ-S-i-N ( ar, ح س ی ن, link=no), is an Arabic name which is the diminutive of Hassan, meaning "good", " ...
administration to gain access to
Iraqi oil
Oil reserves in Iraq are considered the world's fifth-largest proven oil reserves, with 140 billion barrels.
As a result of military occupation and civil unrest, the official statistics have not been revised since 2001 and are largely based on ...
contracts
*Restaurateur
Jeffrey Chodorow
Jeffrey R. Chodorow (born March 2, 1950) is an American actor restaurateur, lawyer and financier.
Early life and education
Jeffrey Chodorow was born in the Bronx, but his father died the year he was born, so he and his mother moved to Miami, ...
*
James Coonan
James Michael Coonan (born December 21, 1946), nicknamed "Jimmy C", is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who, from approximately 1977 to 1988, served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell ...
* Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, who was found guilty
*Christopher "Chris Gotti" Lorenzo, co-founder of Murder Inc. who was acquitted of all charges against him
*
John Gotti
John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 (, ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss ...
Joe Halderman
Robert Joel "Joe" Halderman (born October 1957) is a television news writer, director, former producer for CBS News, and convicted felon. Halderman was found guilty of attempted extortion of talk show host David Letterman.
Career
Born in Da ...
*
Daniel Pelosi
Daniel Pelosi (born August 2, 1963) is an American man who is the convicted murderer of Wall Street financier Ted Ammon, and is the widower of Generosa Ammon.
Early life
Pelosi was born in Center Moriches, New York.
Relationship
Pelosi m ...
*
Marc Dreier
Marc Stuart Dreier (born May 12, 1950) is an American former lawyer who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2009 for committing investment fraud using a Ponzi scheme. He is scheduled to be released from FCI Sandstone on October 26, 2 ...
New York Newsday
''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of ''Newsday'', a Long Island- ...
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
CNN Live Sunday
''CNN Newsroom'' (also simply known as ''Newsroom'') is an American news programming block that airs on CNN.
Broadcasting for 43 hours each week, ''Newsroom'' features live and taped news reports, in addition to analysis from experts on the issu ...