New Jackson attorney accustomed to spotlight
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Benjamin Brafman
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CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin discusses the addition of Benjamin Brafman to Michael Jackson's defense team. (January 16)
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(CNN) -- The attorney who has joined singer Michael Jackson's defense team is no stranger to public figures and high-profile criminal cases.
Benjamin Brafman, 55, a principal in the Manhattan law firm Brafman & Ross, is best known nationally for winning an acquittal for Sean "P. Diddy" Combs in 2001 on bribery and weapons charges.
Combs hired Brafman through famed lawyer Johnnie Mr. Cochran, who in turn successfully defended former athlete O.J. Simpson against murder charges.
Jackson attorney Mark Geragos announced Thursday that Brafman would share lead co-counsel duties. The pop star pleaded not guilty to charges in the child molestation case Friday. (Full story)
"I look forward to working with Mark Geragos. I've met Mr. Jackson, and I'll do everything I can to extricate him from this nightmare," Brafman said in a phone interview. "At the end of the day, he'll be fully exonerated."
The New York lawyer also defended former mafia hit man Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, who confessed to 19 murders as part of a 1991 deal with the government to testify against reputed mobsters for at least two years. He spent five years in prison for racketeering.
According to The Associated Press, Brafman's other high-profile victories have included:
• The 1998 acquittal of the New York nightclub owner Peter Gatien on drug conspiracy charges.
• The acquittal of a white man accused of participating in the 1989 death of a black youth in the 1989 Bensonhurst racial killing in New York.
• November's dismissal of charges against another lawyer accused of burying an associate alive under the floor of his Manhattan apartment.
Brafman was practicing white-collar crime cases in the 1980s but turned to criminal cases in the 1990s. In 1997, New York magazine named him best criminal defense lawyer.
CNN's Frank Buckley contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
