Criminal defense attorney convicted of conspiracy regarding fake letter

Scott Brettschneider, a veteran Queens-based criminal defense lawyer nicknamed “Mighty Whitey,” was convicted in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday of conspiring to get a client into a prison drug treatment program by using a fake letter to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Brettschneider, 61, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, who practiced widely on Long Island and specialized in wrongful conviction cases, faces up to five years in prison after a jury convicted him of working with two other men in 2014 and 2015 to fabricate a letter for drug dealer Richard “Love” Marshall.

The letter, prosecutors said, falsely claimed that Marshall had a history of drug dependence and could have facilitated an early release for Marshall.

“This office is committed to protecting the integrity of federal programs for drug abuse treatment to ensure that help is available for those truly in need and not those merely looking for a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Richard Donoghue, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

In a related case, one of the men Brettschneider was accused of conspiring with, Charles Gallman, is accused of working with defense lawyer John Scarpa of Hauppauge to bribe a witness in a 2015 gang-related trial involving the double-murder of Raymond Hirt and John Williams.

In a statement after Friday’s conviction Brettschneider’s lawyer Sarita Kedia called him a “stellar attorney with an impeccable reputation for more than 30 years.”

“I am saddened by the jury’s verdict today,” Kedia added. “We certainly plan to appeal and hope that he will ultimately be exonerated.”