(L-R) Joaquin Guzman's defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman (AP photo ) and Sarma Melngailis (NY Post/Annie Wermiel)Lawyer's Steamy Affair Becomes Question for Jurors in El Chapo Trial
Jurors in the El Chapo trial were recently asked if they had any knowledge about an explosive article detailing the Mexican drug kingpin's lawyer's affair with a woman known as the "Vegan Bernie Madoff."
January 24, 2019 at 01:38 PM
3 minute read
Jurors in the El Chapo trial were recently asked if they had any knowledge about an explosive article detailing the Mexican drug kingpin's lawyer's affair with another client, a woman known as the “Vegan Bernie Madoff.”
The New York Post broke a story on January 12 about attorney Jeffrey Lichtman's affair with former restaurateur Sarma Melngailis, who was arrested in May 2016 for stealing nearly $2 million from her now-shuttered Gramercy Park eatery, Pure Food and Wine. Lichtman agreed to represent her in 2017, and ultimately reduced a potential 15-year sentence to four months. During this representation, Lichtman, who is married, embarked on a sexual relationship with Melngailis, which was detailed in several text messages obtained by the Post. Lichtman was also representing El Chapo at the time.
The text messages revealed that Lichtman's concentration was tested during parts of Melngailis's trial. “It was crazy. During the plea I was kind of swooning for you. Just wanted to touch you a little even,” he wrote. “I love when you say stuff like that. As it's often hard to tell behind your surly facade. That's romantic,” Melngailis responded.
Lichtman even talked to Melngailis about aspects of the El Chapo trial. In a text sent March 16, 2017, Lichtman asked her if it's “bad that I'm hiring a belly dancer to be Chapo's daily visitor? . . . he has no pretty women visiting him. I feel bad.”
After the story broke over that weekend, Judge Brian Cogan took to the bench in the El Chapo trial and said the attorneys in the case wanted to “discuss the potential effects of a certain media coverage that tangentially related to the case over the weekend.” The judge went on to say that he polled all 12 jurors “to see if any of them had been exposed or if anyone had seen or heard of the article in question,” referring to the Post piece.
Cogan said the jurors' answers amounted to a “unanimous adamant, 'What are you talking about, judge?'” He was confident that none of them had any knowledge of the news of Lichtman's affair. “For me, that closes the matter,” Cogan decided.
The El Chapo trial in Brooklyn has provided no shortage of sensational news items, from revelations of the drug lord's own text messages sent to his wife to tales of him running naked with his mistress from authorities.
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