DENVER—A federal judge is considering whether an Aspen woman represented by a fake attorney should get a new trial after her attorney admitted this week that he wasn’t qualified.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Gwen Bergman’s right to have an attorney were violated in October 2007 when she was found mentally competent to stand trial. She was represented by Howard Kieffer, a man convicted in North Dakota for impersonating an attorney.
According to the Denver Post ( ), Kieffer advised Bergman to move forward with a trial, contradicting advice from another attorney. Bergman was convicted in May 2008 of trying to hire a hit man to kill her son’s father and is serving a nine-year sentence.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
