Lawyer's Trial Goes to Jury Today

By Joe Pichirallo, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 4, 1980 ; Page B1

Attorney James I. Burkhardt, on trial on conspiracy charges for alleged payoffs to former Alexandria prosecutor William L. Cowhig, testified emotionally yesterday about the man he called a longtime friend.

"I don't know why everybody's picking on him [Cowhig]," Burkhardt recalled saying at a 1978 meeting called to discuss Cowhig's possible resignation after his acquittal on a bribery charge related to the city's bingo scandal.

Reminded yesterday that Cowhig resigned his post in 1979 and now works in a Florida bakery, Burkhardt wept openly on the witness stand, and was momentarily unable to continue his testimony.

"I thought it would be in his best interest and in the best interest of the city for him to get out of office," Burkhardt said haltingly of his friend of 15 years.

Shortly after completion of Burkhardt's testimony, both sides rested their cases and closing arguments were presented to the jury yesterday afternoon. The jurors will begin consideration of the charges this morning.

Burkhardt, accused of funneling payoffs to Cowhig over a three-year period, is charged with conspiracy and two counts of violating federal racketeering laws. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted of all three counts.

The charges grow out of Burkhardt's role as legal adviser to a lucrative prostitution ring headed by Louis Michael Parrish, who earned as much as $1 million a year from the business, according to government testimony. m

Parrish allegedly channeled $500 monthly cash payments through Burkhardt to Cowhig to buy protection from prosecution, which allowed his illegal sex business to flourish in Alexandria. Parrish was convicted last year of prostitution charges.

U.S. District Court Judge Oren R. Lewis, whose fiery outspoken style has at times dominated the trial, at one point told lawyers for both sides that the verdict will be a "credibility matter."

Burkhardt and his chief accusers, Parrish and two former top Parrish lieutenants, Larry J. Wadino, 32, and Kathy Lynn Caldwell, 26, have given sharply contradictory accounts of Burkhardt's involvement in the Parrish operation.

Parrish testified that Burkhardt was an "intimate adviser" who helped direct the illegal sex business. Burkhardt said he provided only legal advice and took no part in Parrish's illegal activities.

"I tried not to know what was going on in Parrish's operation," Burkhardt said under oath yesterday. "It was not my job as I saw it."

The defense has strongly attacked the truthfulness of Parrish and his former aides, who also were convicted of prostitution charges last year. Defense attorneys said the trio implicated Burkhardt in hopes of getting reduced prison sentences.

"Mike Parrish appreciates nothing but Mike Parrish and money," defense lawyer Kenneth Michael Robinson told the jury. "He worships it. He owns Larry Wadino."

Burkhardt, Robinson said, "is better than Mike Parrish. [Burkhardt's] life is at stake. Not just his freedom, possibly, but his right to be a lawyer."

Robinson said that the more than $30,000 in legal fees Burkhardt received for representing Parrish, over four years was a fraction of his law firm's earnings. "What is Jim Burkhardt's motive to have done this? You figure it out. I can't," Robinson told the jury.

Robinson, a former prosecutor who still has a thick accent from his native South Carolina, delivered an emotional, colorful closing argument. He called the government's case a "fraud" and labeled the chief investigator, FBI agent Charles Bartles Iii, a "piranha" who engineered Burkhardt's indictment in hopes of getting him to give evidence against Cowhig.

Defending the government's case, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Theodore Greensburg said the case against Burkhardt "was built from day one on facts and figures and papers."

Burkhardt, Greenberg said, "is not different than any other citizen. He has to follow the law. He can't counsel people on how to break the law just because he is a lawyer."

Greenberg said Burkhardt was motivated by the money that Parrish paid him, the power he enjoyed, and the sexual favors he received. "Motives don't always have to be solely for greed," Greenberg said.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.