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Courts Hired a Criminal By David Seifman Investigators are looking into $61,000 worth of questionable bills submitted by an "expert" who was hired by the court system - even though he had a criminal record. Richard Gottfried served time for federal wire fraud in 1996 and was bounced from a court job in Philadelphia in 2002, the city Department of Investigation said. Yet even though his criminal record was a matter of public record, two administrators for the city-funded Assigned Counsel Plan allowed Gottfried to sign on as an independent "mitigation specialist," helping lawyers who defend indigent suspects. Officials said the administrators never asked Gottfried about a statement on his application referring to "the time I have spent inside the prison walls" From July 2004 to September 2005, Gottfried collected $160,000, officials said. DOI contends that about $61,000 was for work he never performed.
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A Feast
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