Bruce Cutler
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Richard Bruce Cutler is a criminal defense lawyer based in New York City who gained notoriety in the 1980s for defending reputed mobster John Gotti. Cutler won two acquittals for Gotti, centering his legal strategy on the Lifestyle Defense to combat the RICO charges against his client. Cutler's signature courtroom technique was his vigorous cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, who agreed to testify against Gotti only in exchange for lighter sentences. These cross-examinations, nicknamed "Brucifixions", exposed selfish, illegal, psychopathic and downright bizarre behavior in the prosecution witnesses which undermined their credibility to the jury. It should be noted that at least one of the jurors, George Pape, in a Gotti trial accepted a bribe in order to find Gotti not guilty.
When Gotti was indicted in 1990 for the murder of Paul Castellano, the court disqualified Cutler from representing Gotti, based on the prosecution's allegations that Cutler was "in house counsel" to the Gambino crime family. [1], [2], [3]
He graduated from Hamilton College and attended Brooklyn Law School.
Currently, he is serving as the defense attorney for legendary music producer Phil Spector. [4]
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