Investigating the wrongdoings of Howard O. Kieffer just got easier for federal authorities because the ex-con has admitted to a judge that he is not licensed to practice law and did not graduate from the law school he claimed to attend.
Kieffer, a 52-year-old from Santa Ana, Calif., posed as an attorney and was retained to represent Gwen Bergman, an Aspen woman accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her son’s father, in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Bergman was convicted, but the judge who presided over her trial said this week he is considering a mistrial because she was not represented by counsel.
In a June 30 letter, Kieffer admitted that he does not have a law license after North Dakota chief federal Judge Daniel Hovland ordered Kieffer to show proof.
North Dakota was one of 10 federal jurisdictions, including Colorado, where Kieffer had claimed to be a lawyer and been granted admission to the bar.
Hovland has suspended Kieffer from the attorney roll in his jurisdiction and referred Kieffer’s case to federal prosecutors for investigation.
Kieffer’s letter to the judge was submitted by his attorney, Joshua Sabert Lowther of Savannah, Ga.
Lowther did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday about Kieffer’s actions.
Court records show Bergman’s case is not the only one that has been put on hold because of Kieffer’s deception.
In the Western District of Missouri, a judge has halted proceedings on a motion for a sentence reduction that was filed by Kieffer on behalf of David Oliver Reed, a man convicted of sexual exploitation of minors.
Federal prosecutors in Ohio have said in court papers that they will seek to dismiss a sentence-reduction motion filed by Kieffer on behalf of convicted marijuana trafficker Edwin Stupka if it is determined that Kieffer is a phony.
The Denver Post found that Kieffer began working as an attorney as early as 2004 and represented at least 16 clients across the country by lying on bar admission applications that were not verified by the courts.
Bergman’s case may have been Kieffer’s only trial, as it appears he mostly represented clients post-conviction on motions to reduce their sentences.
Kieffer has a criminal record that includes grand theft and filing false tax returns. He was incarcerated in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from 1989 to 1992.
Kieffer is under investigation by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Utah, who took over after Colorado prosecutors were forced to recuse themselves because they witnessed Kieffer try Bergman’s case.
Bergman’s family said they paid Kieffer more than $50,000 to represent her.
Another client told the judge in North Dakota that Kieffer got $37,000 to represent him on a child-pornography case.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
