Speaker 1: Paul Bergran was the lawyer who could get you out
Speaker 1: of any sticky situation. Caught selling pirated videos like Queen
Speaker 1: Latifa was in nineteen ninety five, Better call Paul accused
Speaker 1: of lying to a jury during testimony like Lil Kim
Speaker 1: was in two thousand and three. Better call Paul caught
Speaker 1: stabbing your spouse ten times with a steak knife. No
Speaker 1: matter if you were innocent or guilty, Paul could get
Speaker 1: you off the hook. We see lawyers like this and
Speaker 1: the Sopranos are breaking bad. But what happens when those
Speaker 1: fictitional lawyers cross over into the real world. At the
Speaker 1: peak of his career, Paul Bergeran was undefeated, a master
Speaker 1: lawyer who knew the system inside and out. But when
Speaker 1: an FBI agent finds traces of Bergran's involvement in a
Speaker 1: massive drug ring, questions start to arise. On the Lanks.
Speaker 1: Paul went to achieve his dominance in what he would
Speaker 1: do to ensure that he stayed there. In wonder He's
Speaker 1: True crime podcast, criminal Attorney host Jens Jenkins will tell
Speaker 1: you the true story of how Paul Bergran went from
Speaker 1: representing others in court to representing himself. No one is
Speaker 1: better suited to breaking the law than those who know
Speaker 1: it the best. Paul Bergrin is a hot shot criminal
Speaker 1: defense attorney in Newark, New Jersey. Seemingly unstoppable and with
Speaker 1: unorthodox method, He's built a reputation for getting his clients
Speaker 1: off the hook. But is Paul's legend grows, so do
Speaker 1: the suspicion swirling around him. When FBI agent Sean Brockos
Speaker 1: starts investigating a major drug ring, she makes a shocking discovery.
Speaker 1: The gang's most powerful player is none other than Newark
Speaker 1: star attorney. Has the ex federal prosecutor crossed the line
Speaker 1: and started committing crimes himself? From wonderre comes a new
Speaker 1: series about a lawyer who breaks all the rules, the
Speaker 1: FBI agent determined to take him down at all costs,
Speaker 1: and the people caught in the middle who paid the
Speaker 1: ultimate price. I'm about to play a clip from Criminal Attorney.
Speaker 1: Follow Criminal Attorney on the Wondery app or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast. Listen to Criminal Attorney early and ad
Speaker 1: free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery
Speaker 1: app or on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2: From Wondering, I'm Brandon Drinks Jenkins and this is criminal term.
Speaker 2: It was two thousand and three and Sean Brocos was
Speaker 2: on her way to a Newerk apartment complex. She had
Speaker 2: received a tip that someone in that apartment had a
Speaker 2: gun that they shouldn't. Sean was in her early thirties,
Speaker 2: blonde and white and Newark. She'll pick a teacher, or
Speaker 2: a dentist, or someone with a desk job at a bank,
Speaker 2: which is actually what she'd been doing seven years earlier.
Speaker 2: She ran the loan department at a bank in El Paso.
Speaker 3: So overseen who qualified for commercial loans, personal loans.
Speaker 2: Car loans, until one day when federal agents came to
Speaker 2: the bank. They were investigating one of the bank's clients,
Speaker 2: who they suspected a money laundering. It wasn't like in
Speaker 2: the movies. It wasn't all that exciting, just two guys
Speaker 2: wearing suits serving a subpoena. Sean was fascinated.
Speaker 3: She thought to herself, Wow, this sounds a whole lot
Speaker 3: more interesting than the work I'm doing. I literally walked
Speaker 3: down to the local FBI office, I put my name in,
Speaker 3: filled out an application, and before I knew it, I
Speaker 3: was off to Quantico for training for the FBI.
Speaker 2: Fast forward to present day, and Sean was a full on,
Speaker 2: bona fide FBI agent.
Speaker 3: It was something that I knew would be an adventure.
Speaker 3: Look Newer at that time was not a great place,
Speaker 3: but if you're in law enforcement, boy, there's no better
Speaker 3: place to be.
Speaker 4: She was part of the gang squad.
Speaker 3: We were always running cases on the Bloods and the
Speaker 3: Crips because at the time in Newark, those were the
Speaker 3: strongest street gangs.
Speaker 2: And on this day the case involved someone affiliated with
Speaker 2: the Crips. The man's name was Chemo DeShawn McCrae. Kimo
Speaker 2: had been convicted of a felony, so it was illegal
Speaker 2: for him to have a gun and that was enough
Speaker 2: to take him down. When Shawn and her partner got
Speaker 2: to the apartment, they knocked on the door. They were
Speaker 2: let inside where they met Chemo and mother.
Speaker 3: We said, hey, we know you have a gun in
Speaker 3: the apartment. We know that you cannot be in possession
Speaker 3: of a gun. We don't have a search warrant. We
Speaker 3: can get one, but if you turn that weapon over
Speaker 3: to us, that would be the best thing to do.
Speaker 4: They went to the bedroom and opened the closet door.
Speaker 3: And there was in the back of a closet. It
Speaker 3: was a sizeable shotgun, brown stock older model and slid off,
Speaker 3: meaning the barrel had been shortened.
Speaker 4: They grabbed the shotgun and headed back to the living room.
Speaker 3: Well, I immediately walked up to Chemo and I said,
Speaker 3: you're going to have to come with us, and I
Speaker 3: was holding him. I think it was on his forearm
Speaker 3: or maybe like his upper arm, and I remember he
Speaker 3: just literally slipped right out of the jacket. So in
Speaker 3: a split second, he's gone and I'm left holding this
Speaker 3: jacket and he's out the door.
Speaker 2: Kimo and his mom were on the ground floor of
Speaker 2: the apartment building, so his escape was pretty simple, and
Speaker 2: he had another advantage.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, I'm not chasing him. I'm in skirting heels.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to chase after him through the projects.
Speaker 2: As Sean watched Chemo run off, she also saw a
Speaker 2: lost opportunity. See Sean wasn't just there to get a
Speaker 2: gun off the street. Sean Brocos needed someone like Chemo,
Speaker 2: shared her eyes on some of the bigger players in Newark,
Speaker 2: and getting Chemo in the custody was just the next
Speaker 2: very important step in her plane. In this case, Keemo
Speaker 2: McCray was not the white whale she was looking to land,
Speaker 2: but he was connected and could lead her up the ladder.
Speaker 2: She needed someone to go inside the crew and feed
Speaker 2: her information. That was why she needed Keema McCrae to
Speaker 2: agree to be a confidential informant. Now, let's be clear here,
Speaker 2: the FBI throughout its history has had a pretty bad
Speaker 2: reputation when it comes to informants.
Speaker 4: They use a small fish to go catch the big fish.
Speaker 2: But that feels more like big game hunting for optics
Speaker 2: more than any attempt to stop a problem or protect citizens,
Speaker 2: like how long ago did they start the war on drugs?
Speaker 2: And how's it going now? But that's the game Sewan's
Speaker 2: playing here. There is no FBI investigation without getting people
Speaker 2: on the street to talk. And that was why the
Speaker 2: fact that he was now out the door and down
Speaker 2: the block was such a bad look. Sean turned to
Speaker 2: Chimo's mother. At first, she claimed the gun was hers,
Speaker 2: not Chemo's, but Sean wasn't buying it one bit.
Speaker 3: I said, you cannot own this gun for your son.
Speaker 3: It is his, and you cannot do this. It's just
Speaker 3: not the right thing to do. And she said, yes,
Speaker 3: it is his gun. It is not my gun, but
Speaker 3: I don't want to get my son into trouble. So
Speaker 3: that's when I said, look, just come down to our
Speaker 3: office tomorrow. We can work through this.
Speaker 2: Sure enough, the next morning, Kimo and his mother show
Speaker 2: up at the FBI field office in Newark. Chimo's a slim,
Speaker 2: black guy in his early thirties. He's been in and
Speaker 2: out of jail a few times at this point, petty
Speaker 2: stuff like weapons possession, robbery, and drugs. But now he's
Speaker 2: got kids. He's very close with his fan, and he
Speaker 2: does not want to do any more time. Sean remembers
Speaker 2: that Chimo's mom did a lot of the talking. He
Speaker 2: looked terrified in his mom's apartment. Kimo had gotten the
Speaker 2: jump on Sean. But here in her office, with Kimo's
Speaker 2: mother by side, ready to do anything to secure his freedom,
Speaker 2: Sean had all the leverage. She'd been in this situation
Speaker 2: enough times before. She'd sat across other young men like
Speaker 2: Kimo and tried to flip them, so by now she
Speaker 2: had a whole speech worked out.
Speaker 3: You don't have to answer any questions. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to ask any questions, but I'd like you to listen
Speaker 3: to me for the next five minutes.
Speaker 4: Sean leaves it out. For Chimo, it's simple.
Speaker 3: You can either join our team become part of team
Speaker 3: Government Mo, which means you're going to help us in
Speaker 3: our investigations. If you decide against that, you do know
Speaker 3: that I will have to arrest you for being a
Speaker 3: possession of this weapon. And what that's going to look
Speaker 3: like is you're going to do jail time. You have
Speaker 3: the previous conviction, you will be going to jail quite
Speaker 3: some time.
Speaker 2: So go to jail or become an informant and risk
Speaker 2: your life trying to infiltrate a ruthless drug gang.
Speaker 4: Rock Meet Hard Place,