Gwen Bergman unwittingly paid thousands of dollars to an ex-con who posed as a defense attorney during her murder-for-hire trial in Denver, and now she wants her money back.
Bergman sued Howard O. Kief fer from prison in Fort Worth, Texas, where she is awaiting sentencing for trying to hire a hit man to kill her son’s father. Her lawsuit, recently filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, seeks a return of attorney’s fees and damages.
Bergman, of Pitkin County, has said she and her family paid Kieffer more than $50,000 to represent her during the trial in May.
Kieffer, 53, is not licensed to practice law, never attended law school and served time in federal prison in the late 1980s on fraud charges.
He is executive director of Federal Defense Associates, legal offices based in Santa Ana, Calif., and Duluth, Minn., and said he specialized in post-conviction issues. He also hosts a listserv about federal sentencing issues that many lawyers across the country had subscribed to for legal advice.
Bergman’s brother found Kieffer on the Internet and hired him to represent his sister. Kieffer cross-examined witnesses during Bergman’s trial, but he also had assistance from co-counsel EJ Hurst II, a licensed Maryland attorney who asked to withdraw from Bergman’s case. A federal judge has granted his request.
In her lawsuit, Bergman criticized the federal court in Denver for “failing to assure the attorneys practicing law in the United States District Court of Colorado are credible under the law.”
Kieffer filled out an application to practice at the federal court in Denver, but the credentials he listed were not verified.
This article has been clarified in this online archive regarding Gwen Bergman’s co-counsel, EJ Hurst II. Hurst asked to withdraw from Bergman’s case and a federal judge granted his request.
