Lawyers Jockey To Represent Teen

GLOUCESTER CITY, N.J. -- After being accused of stabbing her father to death, Jasmine Karo, 18, became a hot commodity in the legal world.

Lawyers eager to take on the high-profile murder case are fighting over who will represent Karo, and one expert is not surprised.

"This is a dream case if you're a criminal defender," said Rutgers University law professor Allan Stein. "The publicity value of taking this case is worth its weight in gold," he told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J. Karo, of Gloucester City, N.J., was charged May 6 with stabbing Alan Karo, 44, after he allegedly threw a telephone at her and punched her because he was angry she was waiting for a call from a boyfriend.

Sitting in a jail cell, she quickly became the prize for lawyers who rushed to represent her. She signed contracts with several, some of whom told Karo they had been sent by her family.

Richard Josselson and law partner Robert DePersia of Haddonfield were among them.

"We told them we were here to see Jasmine Karo, that we were her attorneys," said Josselson. "They (guards) looked at me and started cracking up. They said 'Well, you're like her fifth attorney.'"

The New Jersey Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys bar lawyers from contacting a client who cannot exercise reasonable judgment. The restriction is tailor-made for cases like Karo's, Stein said.

"Someone who was recently arrested at 18 for just killing her father, I would say she's not in her right state of mind," Stein said.

John B. Elbert, a lawyer with offices in Philadelphia and Washington Township, visited Karo in jail several times and filed paperwork that got her bail reduced from $200,000 to $75,000.

Elbert was identified as her lawyer by Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi, when he announced the bail reduction at a news conference.

But when she was released May 9, she was accompanied by a different lawyer -- DePersia.

Elbert plans to file an ethics complaint over the change, saying DePersia improperly contacted someone already represented by counsel.

"I would love for him to do that," DePersia said. "He left me a very threatening message and then wouldn't return my call."

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