Westport lawyer represented celebrity clients
At upstate New York’s Skidmore college, Joesph Tacopina, the brash, Brooklyn-born attorney representing Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, earned a reputation as a fierce defender of the little guy.
“It was one particularly aggressive year,” Tacopina told Hearst Connecticut Media Group in 2012. “We had a lot of small players on our team, and we played in a rough-andtumble division, so as one of the captains, I figured I was charged with making sure they survived.”
That season, Tacopina broke — and still holds — the record for most penalty minutes on the Skidmore College Hockey team.
For nearly 30 years, Tacopina has furthered that tough-guy reputation. In 2002, Westport Magazine called Tacopina a “legal street brawler.” Only, he traded the skates and shoulder pads for designer suits and instead of defending small players, it’s big names like Foxy Brown, Meek Mill, Alex Rodriguez and — his biggest yet — the former president.
Tacopina earned a law degree from Bridgeport Law School, now Quinnipiac University School of Law, and now lives in Westport. He started his career as a prosecutor in New York City before transitioning into defense and later pivoting from a defender of embattled cops to the defender of “Sopranos” actor Lilo Brancato, who was accused of murder in the 2005 death of an NYPD officer.
Since then, the list of high-profile clients and television appearances has grown. Though revelations that Tacopina nearly represented Daniels in a case against Trump could sideline him, Tacopina is already a high-profile attorney.
Some of the cases that made Tacopina famous include:
Abner Louima
By 1997, Tacopina had made the switch from prosecutor to defense attorney. He gained a reputation for defending New York cops accused of crimes and represented NYPD’s Thomas Wiese in the Abner Louima case.
Wiese and other officers were implicated in the rape and torture of Louima, a Haitian immigrant arrested at a Brooklyn nightclub and attacked in the station house.
Justin Volpe, one of the officers, was convicted of the crimes against Louima. Others, including Wiese, were convicted of obstruction of justice. Tacopina helped separate Wiese from Volpe when, in court, he stood up and said, “"My biggest fear, what keeps me up at night, is what you might think because we are sitting 5 feet from Volpe. Just so you know where we stand: My despises Justin Volpe. Volpe is a monster.”
Tacopina later helped Wiese overturn the conviction. His reputation for successfully representing cops grew. That is, until he made it to the top. He defended former NYPD Commisioner Bernard Kerik (who led the department through 9/11) in an ethics case. Kerik pleaded guilty in the case and more charges and a federal investigation followed, this time with Tacopina as a witness against his client. Kerik again pleaded guilty, this time to federal tax and false statement charges.
Kerik sued Tacopina for fraud and misrepresentation, but the case was dismissed, as was his reputation as a fierce defender of cops.
Lilo Brancato
If the Kerik case severed Tacopina’s ties with the NYPD, it was a 2005 case that entered the first incision.
Brancato Jr., “A Bronx Tale” star and “Sopranos” actor, was accused of murder in a 2005 robbery gone wrong. He and an accomplice were caught attempting to rob off-duty officer Daniel Enchautegui in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. Brancato’s accomplice fired the gun and Tacopina was able to convince a jury that Brancato didn’t know his client had a gun at the time of the robbery.
Tacopina’s defense got Brancato off the hook for a second-degree murder charge, but the actor served time for burglary.
The case raised Tacopina’s profile again as he made the switch from defending officers to celebrities often at odds with law enforcement.
Meek Mill
Philadelphia rapper Robert Rihmeek “Meek Mill” Williams was arrested in 2007 on gun and drug charges that would follow him for the next 10 years.
Williams spent years battling Judge Genece Brinkley, who accused him of parole violations. In 2017, Brinkley sentenced him to two to four years in prison for parole violations, lighting a firestorm of celebrities railing against the criminal justice system, including Jay-Z and Kevin Hart. A documentary called “Free Meek” was made to follow the rapper’s struggle.
Tacopina picked up the case and was able to get the rapper released from prison after five months. Tacopina even discredited the judge in the case, accusing her of retaliating against his client after the rapper declined personal requests from the judge.
Williams pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge from the initial offense in 2019 and the other charges were dismissed, ending the 12-year saga.