LI Attorney Found Guilty For Bribing Witness In Murder Trial

BROOKLYN, NY - A Hauppauge attorney was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn on Thursday for scheming to bribe a witness in a double homicide trial in State Supreme Court in Suffolk County, according to the U.S. attorney.

John Scarpa, Jr., an attorney admitted to practice law in the State of New York since 1982, was convicted of both counts of use of interstate facilities in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to do the same.

The verdict followed a four-day trial before United States District Judge Carol Bagley Amon. When sentenced, the 66-year-old faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The evidence at trial showed that in early 2015, Scarpa plotted with co-conspirator Charles Gallman to bribe a convicted murderer to testify in support of his client, Reginald Ross, who was charged with the execution-style killings of two men.

During the investigation, the Queens County District Attorney's office used court-authorized intercepted communications to show that Scarpa and Gallman planned to bribe Luis Cherry to testify falsely at trial.

They wanted him to say that he alone had committed the second of the two murders, and that Ross was innocent. Gallman promised to help Cherry with the appeal of his own murder conviction and to spread word in the prison system that Cherry had not informed against Ross.

After meeting with Cherry at Downstate Correctional Facility, Gallman reported to Scarpa, "Anything we need, he’s willing."

Scarpa then asked, "So this guy is willing to do whatever?" to which Gallman replied, "Whatever you need, John. Whatever you need.... I got a bunch of stuff I wrote down that he wants."

As a result, when Scarpa called Cherry as a witness at Ross’s trial, he testified falsely. Notwithstanding that false testimony, the judge returned guilty verdicts on both murders.

Gallman pleaded guilty in November 2018 to conspiring to violate the travel act by bribing a witness to testify falsely, and conspiring to make false statements to the Bureau of Prisons in a separate scheme.

He was sentenced in March to three years’ imprisonment.