A prominent Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer has been accused of one felony count each of dissuading a witness, bribery of a witness and offering to bribe a witness, according to Los Angeles Daily News.
The lawyer Sean G. Erenstoft, 42, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday morning in a grand jury indictment. Prosecutors allege that the Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer dissuaded the victim in a stalking case from testifying against his client at a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors in the grand jury indictment also allege that Erenstoft filed a civil case against the victim and then dropped the civil case in exchange for a favorable testimony at his client's sentencing.
Erenstoft has become a well-known criminal defense lawyer in the Los Angeles area and is currently representing a key suspect in the "bling ring" celebrity burglary case (see earlier blog post, "Members of the Bling Ring Plead Not Guilty"). Erenstoft is now free from jail on $100,000 bail, and has a pretrial hearing scheduled for March 16, at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.
- 'Bling Ring' Lawyer Indicted for Allegedly Bribing Witness in Another Case (Los Angeles Times)
- LA Lawyer Charged With Trying to Bribe Witness (Associated Press)
- Do's and Don'ts - Being a Witness (FindLaw)
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