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28 ¦ OCTOBER 26, 2020 VERDICTS & SETTLE MENTS

2nd Circuit Upholds Attorney’s Conviction
for Helping Bribe Murder Trial Witness

By Tom McParland

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
on Friday upheld the conviction of a Queens
criminal defense attorney who was sentenced
to two and a half years in prison for helping bribe a
witness to lie in a murder trial.
The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the Man-
hattan-based appeals court, came in a consolidated
appeal by John Scarpa Jr. and Scott Brettschneider,
a fellow defense attorney who was convicted for his
role in a plot to potentially reduce a client’s drug sen-
tence by lying about his history of substance abuse.
According to court documents, both Scarpa and
Brettschneider were mutual associates of Charles
Gallman, an alleged co-conspirator in a plot to bribe
a convicted murderer to provide false testimony in
support of Scarpa’s then-client in a double murder
trial in New York state court.
John Scarpa Jr. claimed that a New York federal judge
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York had incorrectly denied his motion to suppress evidence
had alleged that Scarpa and Gallman promised to from a wiretapped phone conversation.

help Luis Cherry with an appeal of his own murder statements charges, and received four years’ proba-
conviction, and to spread word in the prison sys- tion.
tem that Cherry was not a government informant, According to federal prosecutors, Scarpa was en-
in exchange for his false testimony that Scarpa’s cli- snared in an investigation by the Queens District
ent, Reginald Ross, did not participate in one of the Attorney’s Office that had already resulted in charges
charged murders. against Brettschneider. The nexus between the two
Despite Cherry’s alleged lying on the stand, Ross convicted attorneys came through Gallman, who
was ultimately convicted of the murder, as well as a was partially working out of Scarpa’s office, working
second, unrelated killing at trial, and was sentenced to bribe and intimidate witnesses while claiming to
to 74 years in prison. be a paralegal or investigator.
Gallman pleaded guilty to his role in the con- On appeal, Scarpa claimed prosecutors did not
spiracy, and a federal jury later convicted Scarpa of have enough evidence to convict him on the charges,
conspiracy and use of interstate facilities in aid of and claimed that a Brooklyn federal judge had incor-
racketeering. Brettschneider, meanwhile, was con- rectly denied his motion to suppress evidence from
victed in a separate trial on conspiracy and false a wiretapped phone conversation, in which Gallman

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