Attorney John Scarpa PHOTO: NEW YORK POST

A Queens attorney allegedly bribed a witness to falsely testify at the double murder trial of a client, prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York have claimed in a superseding indictment.

U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue's office said John Scarpa Jr. was arrested Tuesday with violating the Travel Act by bribing a witness during the 2015 murder trial of Reginald Ross. Ross was accused of two unrelated murders, both in 2010: the first a road construction worker killed at his job site because Ross was upset about traffic, and later, in a case of mistaken identity, the brother of a man Ross thought he was targeting over a drug debt.

“As alleged, the defendants bribed a witness to commit perjury in an effort to help Scarpa's client, who had committed two execution-style murders, escape justice,” Donoghue said in a statement. “This office and our law enforcement partners will never tolerate the rigging of a trial and will vigorously prosecute attorneys or anyone else who seeks to undermine the integrity of the judicial process by witness tampering.”

According to federal prosecutors, Scarpa was ensnared in an investigation by the Queens District Attorney's Office that has already seen a separate attorney in the county, Scott Brettschneider, charged by federal prosecutors for his role in a plot to reduce a client's drug sentence by falsifying services he was receiving while incarcerated.

The nexus comes through an associate of both Scarpa and Brettschneider named Charles Gellman. As was revealed in court documents for the Brettschneider case, Gellman was allegedly working with a number of other unnamed attorneys to bribe and intimidate witnesses. Prosecutors noted his extensive criminal history, including his involvement in two separate murders (he won an appeal in one of the cases.)

In a letter filed in federal court, prosecutors in Donoghue's office claimed that Gallman operated partially out of Scarpa's office, where he claimed to be Scarpa's paralegal or investigator. Prosecutors allege this was not the case. Rather, prosecutors claim he worked to bribe and intimidate witnesses for the benefit of Scarpa's clients.

Gellman, who was charged alongside Brettschneider, now faces new charges in the superseding indictment alongside Scarpa.

“I will say again that integrity is the foundation of our criminal justice system,” Queens DA Richard Brown said in a statement. “These allegations go to the core of that foundation and are prejudicial to the administration of justice. The charges today send a strong message to those who would undermine that integrity that they will be held accountable.”

According to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, Gallman visited Luis Cherry at the Downstate Correctional Facility in 2015. Cherry had participated in the mistaken identity slaying, having pleaded guilty for his role in that murder as well as another, unrelated one.

After Gallman visited Cherry, intercepted communications allegedly between Gallman and Scarpa recorded the two men discussing Cherry's willingness to provide whatever testimony Scarpa wanted him to at trial in exchange, as Gallman allegedly told Scarpa.

“So this guy is willing to do whatever?” Scarpa asked Gallman, according to prosecutors.

“Whatever you need, John,” Gallman is said to have replied. “Whatever you need.”

Scarpa called Cherry as a defense witness at trial, where he claimed he alone committed the murder he and Ross were involved in, despite physical evidence that prosecutors said clearly indicated two gunmen were involved. During cross-examination, Cherry claimed falsely that when Gallman visited him, the two did not discuss Ross' murder case.

Ross was ultimately convicted of the homicides and sentenced to 74 years in prison.

Scarpa's actions in the courtroom have at times courted controversy. During the Ross trial, prosecutors said, he grew hostile with prosecutors, asking at one point to “step outside” with an assistant district attorney.

During sentencing for convicted killer Rasheen Everett, Scarpa argued that his client didn't deserve a lengthy prison sentence because the victim was a transgender prostitute.

““Shouldn't that be reserved for people who are guilty of killing certain classes of individuals,” Scarpa is quoted in media reports arguing before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Scarpa is being represented by Raiser & Kenniff name attorney Thomas Kenniff and partner Anthony Colleluori.

In a phone message, Colleluori said he believed the government is “trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”

“In fact, they're trying to make a mountain out of nothing, because I don't believe the conversation says what they think it says,” he said, adding: “I've known John Scarpa for my entire life. He's one of the most honest people I've ever met.”

Read more:

Defense Attorney Charged in Plot to Reduce Client's Prison Sentence

Reginald Ross found guilty of execution-style murders

Hey, she was just a ho: Sick bid by killer's lawyer