This trial has it all: sex, drugs and a secret tape.
Manhattan federal court jurors yesterday heard a recording of a shady lawyer coaching a witness to change her account of a deadly, drug-fueled sex romp. The sleaze-fest involved the witness, her married boyfriend and another gal at a posh Park Avenue hotel.
“I’m not tryin’ to tell you to lie, but I’m tryin’ to tell ya, if you say these things, then I’m suggesting the case will go away, you’ll never hear about it again. Capice?” lawyer Barry Balaban is heard saying.
Balaban, who was busted last week for allegedly suborning perjury and tampering with a witness, was secretly recorded while meeting with Nicole Zobkiw, who’s on trial for lying to a grand jury a day after getting his advice in April 2011, prosecutors say.
The grand jury was investigating banana mogul Thomas Hoey Jr. in the 2009 death of Kimberly Calo, who overdosed on cocaine inside Hoey’s $700-a-night suite at The Kitano, after he allegedly had sex with her and Zobkiw. Hoey had allegedly hired Balaban to represent Zobkiw.
DEA Agent Eric Baldus testified that Zobkiw told him that Balaban had “threatened and intimidated her” and that she was scared of Hoey, who she said “might know individuals in organized crime.”
Balaban’s lawyer declined to comment.