Friday’s Daily News quotes Hiram Monserratte’s high-paid (by somebody) mouthpiece. Joe Tacopina as saying:
"Sen. Monserrate is wrongly accused and will be vindicated," Tacopina said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/07/31/2009-07-31_assault_trial_looms_for_hiram.html
If I were one of those gullible dopes who still believe in Hiram’s innocence, I wouldn’t be that confident since Tacopina hasn’t always shown he’s the best judge of ex-cops turned criminal defendant.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11302007/news/regionalnews/feds_target_kerik_lawyer_222250.htm
In the new motion filed in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors also revealed that Kerik's former lawyer Joseph Tacopina, who left the case earlier this year, would testify about the ex-police big's lies and subsequent admissions of guilt in an earlier state case.
….Prosecutors trace the obstruction to the start of a Bronx DA probe in late 2004, when Kerik instructed Tacopina to tell authorities he had not received free renovations to his Riverdale apartment from an allegedly mob-linked construction company.
Tacopina passed on the false information to the Bronx DA's Office, including a detailed accounting of how Kerik had paid for the work with his own money, court papers state.
….Kerik's denials caused the Bronx DA probe to drag out for more than a year before the former police commissioner changed his tune and authorized Tacopina and Breen, who had since joined the case, to engage in plea negotiations.
In June 2006, Kerik confessed to misdemeanor charges, admitting he'd accepted $165,000 in renovations and failed to disclose the gift to the city.
"The defendant made critical non-privileged admissions to Breen and the admissions are evidence of the defendant's endeavors to obstruct justice," court papers state.