This trial has it all: sex, drugs and a secret tape.
Jurors today heard a recording of a shady lawyer coaching a witness to change her account of a deadly, drug-fueled sex romp involving her, her married boyfriend and another woman 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 said in a heavily slurred voice.
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 in Manhattan federal court for allegedly lying to a grand jury a day after getting his advice in April 2011.
The grand jury was investigating wealthy banana mogul Thomas Hoey Jr. in the 2009 death of Kimberly Calo, who overdosed on cocaine inside Hoey’s $700-a-night suite inside The Kitano after he allegedly had sex with both her and Zobkiw.
Zobkiw told the feds that Hoey hired Balaban to represent her, and John Murphy — who was living with Zobkiw and her son in 2011 — testified yesterday that he was immediately suspicious of Balaban when he showed up at their home.
”The fact that he didn’t even have a business card….It was like a scene out of a movie more than a lawyer coming to help her out,” Murphy said.
After Balaban returned the next day, Murphy said he used his cell phone to secretly record him and Zobkiw, then gave the recording to the feds following Zobkiw’s arrest last year.
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.”
Asked if he had arrested Hoey in connection with Calo’s death, Baldus answered: “Not yet, no.”
Baldus also noted that Balaban “speaks with a slur” and wasn’t drunk on the recording because “that’s just they way he sounds.”
Hoey’s lawyer, Joe Conway, said Hoey “categorically denies” any connection to either Balaban or the mob.
Balaban’s lawyer, David J. Goldstein, denied comment.
bruce.golding@nypost.com