Franklin Township (Somerset County) — The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office will get to see the files an attorney kept for a convicted robber, a judge ruled this morning as part of an ongoing hearing to determine whether that lawyer failed to adequately represent the defendant years ago. Avram Gottlieb, 50, is serving a life sentence for his role as...
Avram Gottlieb (left) listens to his attorney Sandy Larson during proceedings in Somerset County Superior Court in Somerville.Franklin Township (Somerset County) — The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office will get to see the files an attorney kept for a convicted robber, a judge ruled this morning as part of an ongoing hearing to determine whether that lawyer failed to adequately represent the defendant years ago.
Avram Gottlieb, 50, is serving a life sentence for his role as the mastermind behind the botched robbery of a jewelry store in Somerset County that left one of the owners dead. He insists, however, that defense lawyer Lewis White, who is now deceased, was ineffective during the 1997 trial.
An attorney’s files are typically off-limits to outsiders under the attorney-client privilege, but Superior Court Judge John Pursel said Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Murphy has a right to see them since Gottlieb filed a petition for post-conviction relief claiming ineffective assistance of counsel.
Pursel instructed Gottlieb’s current lawyer Sandy Larson to make a list of those documents that should remain privileged and the judge will rule on that list in September.
Larson argued against giving the state Gottlieb’s entire trial file. The law, she said, does not give the state the right to go “page by page” through each of the files. “There has to be care taken in terms of limiting how broad the exposure to the file is,” she said.
On top of that, there is probably little in there of much use, she said.
“I don’t think very much of it reflects work that was done,” Larson said. But she stressed the impact of Pursel’s ruling.
“I think it’s an important precedent. I think it’s going to come up again,” she said.
Murphy argued that he is entitled to the whole file. He needs to find out what notes were taken, what interviews were done and what discovery White retrieved, particularly since there are allegations that he did none of the above. He also noted that the defense continues to produce documents when discovery was closed in this matter more than a year ago.
“I have to protect myself,” Murphy said.
Gottlieb was one of five defendants charged with felony murder, robbery and other offenses for the attack on March 14, 1995, at Jeffrey Scott Fine Jewelers in Franklin Township, a store that belonged to Brenda and Jeffrey Wolf. The heist went awry when Wolf drew a gun and fired, killing his wife and shooting one of the gunmen. Gottlieb was the getaway driver.
Gottlieb insisted the incident was an insurance scam. He was acquitted of felony murder and robbing Jeffrey Wolf, but he was convicted of robbing Brenda Wolf, conspiracy to commit robbery and other offenses.