#witness-intimidation

#witness-intimidation

Gogic, 46, who remains held without bail at MDC Brooklyn, was set to stand trial on charges in November that he played a key role in an operation that trafficked more than 20 tons of cocaine through U.S. ports. A day before opening statements, though, the trial was thrown into chaos, when prosecutors said they'd learned of a plot to offer a $100,000 bribe to a juror.

Deepak Paradkar, 62, is accused of playing a role in Wedding's international drug-trafficking operation, including counseling Wedding to kill a witness. The alleged cocaine lawyer was arrested in November and is facing extradition to the U.S. where he could receive a life sentence if he is convicted of charges including conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to retaliate against a witness.

"This case was flawed from the inception and never should have been brought," defense attorney Mark Bederow said in a statement. "The red flags regarding the credibility of the witnesses, uncorroborated allegations and troubling evidence that this was a set up between people who despise Mr. Kearney and the direct role of the prosecutor himself, should have resulted in better discretion from the prosecution."

Darin McFarlin, 47, was arrested shortly after midnight Friday, Aug. 22, near Bridgeport. Three hours earlier, El Dorado County sheriff's deputies had been called to his Cameron Park home, where they found a woman and a child who had been shot. The woman, pronounced dead at the scene, was identified as McFarlin's girlfriend, Marissa Herzog, 29. The child, who died at a hospital, was her son, a second-grader. Nobody else was in the house, the sheriff's office said,