The yearlong extradition dispute over Jamaican businessman Christopher “Dudus” Coke, accused by federal prosecutors of smuggling illegal firearms and narcotics, led to some embarrassing allegations against Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
Now Coke is adding to his U.S. legal team while he sits in a federal detention center in Manhattan. After months of growing political pressure both domestically and abroad–see below for a series of Am Law Daily stories on the subject–Jamaican government officials acquiesced in June and extradited Coke from Kingston to face criminal charges in New York.
On Wednesday, Coke filed court documents terminating court-appointed solo practitioner Russell Neufeld from representing him. Coke, who already has retained New York solos Elizabeth Macedonio and the uniquely named Steve Zissou, has had trouble retaining counsel as U.S. law forbids lawyers from being paid with illicit funds.
But joining Coke’s legal team on Tuesday was another New York solo, Frank Doddato, who had previously been linked to the case in June when Neufeld told a U.S. district court judge in Manhattan that he was not permanently assigned to the matter because his client’s family had hired Doddato and New York solo Steven Rosen.
