A former federal prosecutor who was charged with arranging the murder of a federal witness in a drug case will not face the death penalty if convicted, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

In May 2009, New Jersey defense attorney Paul Bergrin was arrested in connection with a 14-count racketeering indictment.  Bergrin is a former Essex County assistant prosecutor, the DOJ said. He was an assistant U.S. Attorney from 1985-1990.

The charges included arranging the murder of a witness. The case was brought in New Jersey by then-acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, who is now the office’s First Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Federal prosecutors say Bergrin used threats, bribes and murder to discourage witnesses from testifying. In addition, Bergrin passed the name of an informant to associates of a client in a drug case. The informant was fatally shot in Newark, N.J., in 2004.

The decision not to seek the death penalty in the case was made by Attorney General Eric Holder, according to the AP. The New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office run by Paul Fishman did not comment on the decision.

Lawrence Lustberg, one of Bergrin’s attorneys, told the Asbury Park Press, “Obviously, he’s relieved.”

“He still recognizes that while the death penalty is off the table, his life is on the line. If he is convicted of a number of these allegations, he could spend the rest of his life in prison,” Lustberg added.

In an unrelated case in October 2009, Bergrin was sentenced to time served in connection with running a Manhattan brothel.

Gov.-elect Chris Christie (R)

If New Jersey Gov.-elect Chris Christie (R) in fact had been considering appointing his controversial ally from the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey, Ralph Marra, to be state attorney general, as previous reports indicated, he’s decided against it.

Christie will name Essex County, N.J., prosecutor Paula Dow (D) to the post today, The Associated Press reports. The New Jersey attorney general is an appointed position, not elected, but requires confirmation by the state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Ralph Marra (Getty Images)

Marra recently returned to his First Assistant U.S. Attorney position after serving as acting U.S. Attorney, a post he assumed in December when Christie resigned to run for governor. Yesterday, Obama administration appointee Paul Fishman was sworn in as the state’s new U.S. Attorney.

During the campaign, Marra’s office was criticized by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign for foot-dragging on Freedom of Information Act requests about Christie’s tenure. In addition, the Justice Department launched an ethics probe of Marra for remarks he made at a news conference about a major public corruption sweep Chrthat Democrats said were intended to boost Christie politically.

Paula Dow (gov)

Dow previously worked with Christie in the U.S. Attorney’s office, serving as counsel to the U.S. Attorney and working in the special prosecutions division and the criminal division. She was in the office from 1994 to 2003. Before joining the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office, Dow worked in the Southern District of New York’s office from 1987 to 1994 and for Exxon for seven years.

Christie has already tapped two of his former subordinates from the U.S. Attorney’s office for his administration – Jeffrey S. Chiesa, who will be Christie’s chief counsel, and Kevin M. O’Dowd, who will be deputy chief counsel.

PolitickerNJ reports the former New Jersey U.S. Attorney will also appoint three other prosecutors to top posts. They are:

– Phillip Kwon, a deputy chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as first assistant attorney general

– Marc Ferzan, a deputy chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s office, as executive assistant attorney general

– Carolyn Murray, first assistant prosecutor in Essex County, N.J., as counsel to the attorney general.

UPDATE:  Christie during a noontime press conference made the nominations official, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey reports. In addition, the newspaper reports that Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Guadagno will also serve as secretary of state in the Christie administration. The lieutenant governor, which is a new position in New Jersey, may serve in duel roles in the administration except for attorney general. Guadagno was the deputy chief of the corruption unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1990 to 1998.

Ralph Marra (Getty Images)

Chris Christie plans to name his controversial ally from the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey,  Ralph Marra, to be the state’s next Attorney General,  The Husdon Reporter reports. Marra recently returned to his First Assistant U.S. Attorney position after serving as acting U.S. Attorney, a post he assumed in December when Christie resigned to run for governor. Christie, a Republican, won last night.

During the campaign, Marra’s office was criticized by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign for a slow response to its Freedom of Information Act requests, which Democrats said was a political move.

In addition, the Justice Department has launched an ethics investigation involving Marra for remarks he made at a news conference about a major public corruption probe. The DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility started an internal affairs probe into the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office’s handling of a corruption investigation that netted 44 individuals –  including 29 elected or public officials — in July.

Christie had used the arrests, in a case named Operation Bid Rid, to argue he would be better at preventing public corruption than Corzine. Polling showed the issue resonated with independent voters, who supported Christie in Tuesday’s election.

The New Jersey attorney general is an appointed position, not elected.

The Christie campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

A former Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey has been sentenced in connection with running a Manhattan brothel, The Associated Press reported. Although New Jersey defense attorney Paul Bergrin was sentenced to time served in the misdemeanor prostitution case, he will remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges of arranging the murder of a federal witness in a drug case, The AP reported.

In May, Bergrin was arrested in connection with a 14-count racketeering indictment.  The charges included arranging the murder of a witness. The case was brought in New Jersey by then-acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, who is now the office’s First Assistant U.S. Attorney. Federal prosecutors say Bergrin used threats, bribes and murder to discourage witnesses from testifying, The AP reported. In addition, Bergrin passed the name of an informant to associates of a client in a drug case, The AP reported. The informant was fatally shot in Newark, N.J., in 2004.

Bergrin has pleaded not guilty. Bergrin, a former Essex County, N.J., county assistant prosecutor, served as an assistant U.S. Attorney between 1985 and 1990.

The New York Times reports that the prosecutor to whom Chris Christie lent $46,000 appears to have “used her position in two significant and possibly improper ways to try to aid Mr. Christie in his run for governor.”

Michele Brown (McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter)

The story published on the NYT Web site Monday evening significantly advances the Michele Brown story. It says the former Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey resigned in August after interim U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra came under pressure from unnamed Justice Department officials to remove Brown from collecting records for a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Gov. Jon Corzine (D) campaign.

The Corzine FOIA sought documents related to Christie’s official travel and lodging during his tenure as U.S. Attorney, before he resigned to mount a Republican campaign for governor. But some of those records also involved Brown, and they were not being forwarded in a timely manner – prompting the Corzine campaign to file a complaint about the matter with the Justice Department.

Says the Times:

In March, when Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s campaign requested public records about Mr. Christie’s tenure as prosecutor, Ms. Brown interceded to oversee the responses to the inquiries, taking over for the staff member who normally oversaw Freedom of Information Act requests, according to federal law enforcement officials in Newark and Washington. The requested information included records about Mr. Christie’s travel and expenses, along with Ms. Brown’s travel records.

It was later revealed the Christie and Brown had rented rooms in the same luxury hotels while on official travel.

The Associated Press last week reported:

The vouchers show Christie and Brown stayed at the NineZero Hotel in Boston on Oct. 16, 2007 and each billed taxpayers $449 plus taxes and fees for their rooms, more than double the government allowance for a Boston hotel room at the time, according to a General Services Administration travel reimbursement table.

Christie made a mortgage loan to Brown five days after they returned from Boston, on Oct. 22, 2007. He failed to report the loan on federal ethics forms and on his 2007 federal income tax returns, omissions he later described as a mistake. Brown has since resigned and joined a private law firm

The NYT piece cites  ”federal law enforcement sources in Newark and Washington” as its sources.

It also illuminates some of the political wrangling around Marra’s successor, Obama nominee Paul Fishman, whose nomination was stalled for months by Republican senators placing anonymous holds on him.

As we guessed here in this earlier report, the delays apparently had to do with whether Christie or Fishman would get to take credit for a massive roundup in July of public officials in a corruption sweep called Operation Bid Rig. If Fishman had been promptly confirmed, he would have likely emerged a the public face of the investigation.

The NYT reports:

In mid-June, when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors gathered to set a date for the arrests of more than 40 targets of a corruption and money-laundering probe, Ms. Brown alone argued for the arrests to be made before July 1. She later told colleagues that she wanted to ensure that the arrests occurred before Mr. Christie’s permanent successor took office, according to three federal law enforcement officials briefed on the conversation, presumably so that Mr. Christie would be given credit for the roundup.

Brown declined to be interviewed by the New York Time but emailed the newspaper to call the charges “outrageous and inaccurate.”. A Christie spokesman said  Brown had not helped his campaign in any way while in the U.S. Attorney office. Read our previous report about Marra’s frustrations, including revelations of an Office of Professional Responsibility probe into whether he aided Christie’s candidacy with remarks a news conference announcing the corruption sweep.

Christie said said he loaned Brown $46,000 to pay her mortgate in September 2007 after her husband, Michael Allen, lost his job.

News of Mr. Christie’s loan to Ms. Brown broke in August, dealing a blow to his candidacy, and he apologized for failing to report it on his tax returns and ethics filings.

Paul Fishman (Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman)

Acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, who became entangled in the bitter New Jersey gubernatorial race, will return to his old job as First Assistant U.S. Attorney after Paul Fishman is sworn in tomorrow, PolitickerNJ reported.

Fishman’s appointment was held up for several months by Republicans, who never articulated their reasons for it. But we speculated it had something to do with the nasty race between former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R) and Gov. Jon Corzine (D) for governor, which will finally end on Nov. 3 when voters go to the polls. The Senate confirmed Fishman as New Jersey U.S. Attorney on Oct. 7.

Marra came under Justice Department ethics investigation for remarks he made at a news conference about a major public corruption probe. The Corzine camp complained the remarks appeared designed to boost Marra’s former boss, Christie.

Marra took over the office in December, after Christie resigned to run for governor.

Marra at the July 23 Operation Bid Rig news conference that sparked an ethics inquiry into his remarks. (Getty Images)

For the past two months, Marc Larkins has been pulling double duty as the office’s Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney and Acting First Assistant. Larkins became Acting First Assistant after Michele Brown resigned in August. A loan Christie had made to her but not reported on his ethics and tax forms had become a campaign issue. Under Fishman, Larkins will continue his work as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, PolitickerNJ reported.

New Jersey defense attorney Paul Bergrin was arrested today in connection with a 14-count racketeering indictment. Among the charges is that Bergrin arranged the murder of a federal witness in a drug case, the Department of Justice announced. The case was brought by Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., in New Jersey. Read the indictment here.

“The allegations in this indictment make Bergrin no different than a street gangster,” Gerard P. McAleer, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New Jersey, said in the DOJ news release.

 Bergrin, 53, of Nutley, is a former Essex County Assistant Prosecutor, the DOJ said. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney between 1985 and 1990.

More from the news release:

“The conduct alleged is simply shocking,” Marra said.  “A licensed lawyer, a former prosecutor essentially became one of the criminals he represents, supporting, encouraging, indeed directing a criminal enterprise that engaged in murder and murder conspiracies, drug trafficking and financial fraud.  Bergrin can now expect to feel the full weight of the very legal system he turned on its head with his conduct.”