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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

University of Wexford Grads -
They’re Everywhere!


'A self-described sentencing expert who claimed to be a consultant for numerous Center City criminal-defense lawyers was arrested yesterday after a Philadelphia grand jury accused him of defrauding the city courts out of almost $400,000.

District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said Richard Gottfried and three alleged accomplices preyed on the lax procedures of some lawyers and city judges to bill the courts for presentencing investigations and other consulting work he never performed.

Abraham called Gottfried, 49, "the great pretender," alleging that he used a "diploma mill" to provide a résumé that included a purported law degree and state psychologist license.

The investigating grand jury issued a presentment recommending that Gottfried be charged with corrupt organizations, forgery, criminal conspiracy, theft by deception, tampering with public records, and bribery.


…According to the grand jury's report and presentment, Gottfried first appeared in Philadelphia in about August 2000 and began contacting criminal-defense lawyers in Center City offering his services as a "sentencing mitigation specialist" who could perform presentence investigations or testify as an expert at sentencing.

Within a year, the grand jury reported, Gottfried began getting work, especially from lawyers with court appointments to represent indigent defendants. Gottfried obtained a city business-privilege license and a tax account as a mitigation specialist.

In December 2001, the grand jury found, Gottfried leased an office at 924-28 Cherry St. already used by two defense lawyers and Miller, the criminal investigator.

One of the lawyers, Fred Harrison, retained Gottfried in March 2002 for a capital murder case. But before Gottfried could testify, the grand jury found, the prosecutor researching the backgrounds of defense witnesses discovered that Gottfried's law degree from the University of Wexford was bogus; the university was a mail-order diploma mill.'


philly.com