JERSEY LAW

The two bottom-feeding South Jersey lawyers from Death by Rodrigo (2007) are at it again, their goal not so much to excel in court as to survive outside it.

You don’t want to mess with Slippery (nee Avon) Williams, whether you’re dealing drugs on the fair streets of Camden under his watchful eye or running a parallel organization in Atlantic City, which Chink (nee Reginald Shawn) Dupree was doing from prison until Slippery got him transferred into the Camden County Jail and iced. But now, it seems, Sami Khan, South Jersey’s premier electronics dealer, is doing just that. As if fencing stolen property and evading taxes weren’t enough for his family business, Sami has been laundering money for Slippery’s outfit—which would be fine if Camden County DA Robert Cahill weren’t leaning on Sami to flip. The situation is even trickier for Sami’s lawyers, Mickie Mezzonatti and Junne Salerno, whose youse-guys narration guides innocent readers through this jungle. Having accepted $50,000 from Slippery to join upscale Philadelphia attorney Gerald Rubino at Sami’s defense table, they realize too late that the service they’re being paid for is to tip Slippery off to any hint that Sami’s about to roll over on him. Of course, if they betray a client’s confidence, they’ll be disbarred. But disbarring sounds pretty good compared to getting whacked by Slippery, especially once Arty Bernstein, the landlord of their bucket shop, indicates that he’s perfectly willing to sell them out to Slippery the minute they make a wrong move, or even before.

The dilemma is so authentic that it’s sad to see how cheaply and easily Liebman lets his two heroes off the hook. Fuhgeddaboudit, but be sure to check back next time.