Howard O. Kieffer, an ex-convict who posed as an attorney during an Aspen woman’s murder-for-hire trial, avoided going back to jail on Thursday even though a federal judge believed he was still representing himself as a lawyer.
Kieffer, 53, is facing federal charges of mail fraud and making false statements in U.S. District Court in Bismarck, N.D.
He has not been charged with impersonating an attorney in the case of Gwen Bergman, who was convicted in U.S. District Court in Denver of trying to hire a hitman to kill her son’s father.
Kieffer – who has a criminal fraud record dating to the late 1980s – did not have a law license and did not attend law school but managed to represent at least 16 clients in 10 federal jurisdictions around the country.
On Thursday, North Dakota’s federal judge Charles S. Miller ruled that Kieffer had violated the terms of his release on bail by contacting three inmates and Bergman’s current lawyer, Martha Eskesen, to offer legal advice.
As a condition of his release, Kieffer was not supposed to act as a legal expert or an attorney.
Miller placed Kieffer on electronic monitoring and ordered that he stay home and not use a cell phone or a computer until his trial starts in January.
