Los Angeles attorney Robert Shapiro, who spear-headed O.J. Simpson's legal "Dream Team" in his 1995 murder trial, has found himself at the wrong end of a Jewish Defense League megaphone for the second time. JDL national chairman Irv Rubin, who loudly attacked Shapiro throughout the trial for defending the alleged killer of Jewish victim Ron Goldman, is now trumpeting charges that Shapiro has welshed on a personal commitment to his organization. Shapiro flatly denies the claim.
Rubin told The Jerusalem Report he initiated a meeting with Shapiro on December 19 after hearing that Shapiro now regretted having defended Simpson. Rubin believed he might translate Shapiro's guilt into a sizable contribution to the JDL. He asserts that Shapiro acknowledged feeling "personal regret" for his role in freeing Simpson, particularly in light of fellow defense lawyer Johnny Cochran's equation of detective Mark Fuhrman with Adolf Hitler, and Cochran and Simpson's use of Nation of Islam bodyguards. As a defense lawyer, however, he told Rubin he felt professionally bound to give Simpson the best defense possible.
Rubin, who says he attended the meeting with his deputy, Earl Kruegel, says that Shapiro offered the JDL a $ 1,000 contribution, a sum Rubin dismissed as paltry in light of the $ 1.5 million Shapiro had allegedly earned defending Simpson. When Rubin asked Shapiro to double his contribution, Shapiro demurred, claiming that Simpson still owed him half a million dollars in fees that, in light of the current civil trial against Simpson, could probably never be collected. Rubin says he asked if the JDL might have a go at collecting, and insists that Shapiro said, "If you can collect it, you're welcome to every penny."
Rubin lost no time running to the media with news of this windfall. Reached by a local wire service while on winter vacation, however, Shapiro said he was "surprised and shocked" to learn of Rubin's announcements. He dismissed Rubin's version of the meeting as "distorted and mischaracterized," insisting "neither Mr. Rubin nor the Jewish Defense League is authorized to do anything regarding Mr. Simpson."
Rubin intimated he would turn the matter over to the JDL's lawyers. Whether Rubin's "Dream Team" proves a match for O.J.'s, however, remains to be seen.