Criminal Justice: Talk Tactics

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The Manhattan district attorney's office calls Harold ("Kayo") Konigsberg "one of the biggest loan sharks in the country," but Kayo deserves more notoriety than that. Singlehanded, with consummate gall, he has been carrying on a blatant attempt to make a travesty of U.S. criminal justice. When he went on trial last December on ten counts of conspiracy, extortion and assault, he deliberately attempted to turn his hearing before New York County Judge Abraham Gellinoff into such a circus that he could later claim a mistrial.

Two years ago, he arrived in court for a preliminary hearing seated in a wheelchair, his body swaddled in blankets, a bandana hiding his face. He has feigned insanity twice and once arrived on a stretcher. In the middle of his trial last January, he fired his lawyer, Frances Kahn, because she was a "prosecution spy" and took over his own defense. The detective who arrested him he called a "sadist." Assistant District Attorney Frank Rogers became the "persecutor." Judge Gellinoff was an "animal." Once, while cross-examining a prosecution psychiatrist, Kayo posed an hour-long hypothetical question. "Now, Doctor," he finally concluded, "assuming everything I said to be true, do you have an opinion as to whether District Attorney Rogers is crazy?" Improper, ruled the court wearily. "Why, Judge?" asked Kayo. "Anybody who would try me on these preposterous charges must be crazy."

"Deterianation." Gellinoff was patient. But after almost two months of buffoonery, Gellinoff excused the jury from the courtroom. "Now shut up and listen to me," he told Kayo. "You are a faking, lying, scheming, conniving person. I have an open mind as to whether you are guilty, but I want you to know, and I put it in the record, that I think you are sneaky and tricky. I now, on your behalf, move for a mistrial in this case—and deny the motion." Fifteen days later—after a four-hour summation in which Kayo offered to pay jurors for any inconvenience due to the trial's length—he was found guilty on five counts.

Because of his two previous felony convictions, Hoodlum Konigsberg faced a maximum sentence of 174 years. But Kayo decided to keep on stalling. On the day of the sentencing, he launched into another four-hour speech—this time assaulting the English language along with other targets. "It is because of people like you, Mr. Court," he said to Gellinoff, "that justice has deterianated. It is bringing totarianism here. The court made 49 errors in law, and you foreclosed me in getting a fair trial. I will not kowtail to you or anyone else." Having thus blathered on, he next stood "mute" when asked if he had been convicted twice before. He had, of course, but by refusing to say so he forced the state to prove it before a jury.