Slotnick for the Defense

Slotnick for the Defense

Slotnick, Barry, 1939-

Goetz, Bernhard Hugo, 1947-

Criminal defense attorneys

An article about Bary Slotnick, defender of the subway vigilante.

McKillop, Peter

Newsweek

HIST 298, University of Mary Washington

1987-05-04

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English

New York, NY

It’s not often that a U.S. congressman chooses a lawyer who has made a career of keeping mobsters out of jail. But that’s what Rep. Mario Biaggi of New York did when he recently hired Barry Ivan Slotnick to defend him on charges that he peddled influence for favors. No one could blame Biaggi. In March Slotnick and his former law partner Bruce Cutler stunned prosecutors by persuading a jury that alleged Mafia kingpin John gotti and six codefendants were innocent of federal racketeering charges. In 26 years of defending mob biggies, drug dealers, youth gangs and assorted unsavories, Slotnick has won jury acquittals for an astounding 95 percent of his clients. This week he faces yet another challenge when he tries to convince a jury that “subway vigilante” Bernhard Goetz is just a decent, law-abiding citizen. In New York’s most celebrated criminal case since David (Son of Sam) Berkowitz was put away for mass murder, Slotnick will argue that Goetz acted in self-defense when he shot four black men he thought were about to mug him on a subway two years ago. Slotnick’s first major break came in 1968 when he successfully blocked federal efforts to prosecute Mafia don Joseph Colombo. Since then, federal prosecutors have gained a grudging respect for the bearded Bronx native. They concede he has kept enough distance from his clients to remain credible to a jury, even while gaining the reputation as one of organized crime’s favorite outside counsels. Slotnick cringes at the tag. He prefers to describe his practice in constitutional terms. “Keeping government in check,” he says, “is the most important thing I do.” Outstretched arms: Nevertheless, over the years he has a had a very close personal relationships with the Colombo family. Slotnick was on the Brooklyn don’s upstate New York farm when his son took his first steps toward Colombo’s outstretched arms. In 1971 he was only inches away when Colombo was gunned down at an Italian-American rally. Recently he represented the patriarch’s son—Anthony Colombo—who eventually pleaded guilty to racketeering charges. Slotnick’s remarkable acquittal rate isn’t due to excessive plea bargaining; he takes the majority of his cases to trial. And he does do more than defend alleged mobsters. His clients have included Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the the militant Jewish Defense League; the head of a Chinese youth gang charged with murder; a corporate president accused of smuggling cocaine, and a Queens Sunday-scchool teacher who gained brief fame as the first woman to win one of the many paternity suits filed against Las Vegas crooner Engelbert Humperdinck. Slotnick once even saved a German shepherd from being destroyed when a woman who claimed she had been bitten was unable to pick the dog out in a lineup. Slotnick’s supporters say his success stems from an innovative courtroom style—The American Lawyer magazine said he pursued “ingenious strategies in impossible situations” when it selected him criminal-defense lawyer of the year in 1981. That year he defended to Hasidic Jews charged with the attempted murder of a black teenager by filling the courtroom with Hasidim in traditional black garb and placing the two defendants among them. When no witness could pick out the defendants, a jury that included seven blacks but no Jews acquitted his clients. In another case, Slotnick defended a man charged with bribery by arguing that he was guilty of grand larceny instead. When prosecutors sought to retry his client, Slotnick successfully cited the constitutional protection against double jeopardy that prevents defendants from being tried twice for a similar offense. Hung jury? In preparing for the Goetz trial, Slotnick has once again stepped out on a legal limb. Recently he drew a judge’s ire when he obliquely reminded 18 prospective jurors that it was in their power to ignore jury instructions. “If you find that the prosecution has proved the case beyond a doubt, and if the judge instructs you that you must convict on that basis, would you feel obligated to do so?” he asked. With that, Slotnick raised the so-called “nullification issue” in which a jury, acting as the “conscience of the community,” can vote for acquittal despite the evidence. The judge warned the jurors that such a strategy would cause “utter chaos” by “overthrowing the rule of la” and increasing the chances of a hung jury. With few facts in dispute in the case, Slotnick may have no other choice. He will defend Goetz, in part, by appealing to the jury’s innate sense that a climate of fear exists in New York City—an atmosphere that could justify Goetz’s action in the minds of ordinary citizens. He hopes to convince the jury that Goetz was just a “decent citizen fighting back, desperately seeking self-protection and retribution against a violent crime.” Despite his growing notoriety, Slotnick has yet to achieve what he wants most—acceptance in New York’s clubby legal fraternity that looks askance at attorneys who defend mobsters. “Barry wants nothing more than to be seen as an Edward Bennett Williams type,” says a top federal law-enforcement official. “Yet as hard as he tries with a Bernie Goetz or a Marrio Biaggi, the bottom line is that the bulk of his practice is Mafia.” A few legal experts are beginning to show respect for the complexities of defending members of organized crime. Still, Slotnick will have a tough time winning over what may be his toughest jury yet—his peers in the legal community.

[image - Person dressed in suit sitting in chair.]

[image caption - A don, a dog and a Sunday-school teacher: Hoping for respect]

Magazine

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