New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman could become very familiar with the inside of a courtroom over the next several months. For starters, there is the ongoing Alex Rodriguez saga that is sure to involve everyone within the Yankees organization, as well as their grandparents and first-born children. Cashman is also dealing with his alleged mistress, Louise Meanwell, who is being brought up on charges related to stalking and extortion.
And now, it appears that the two cases have become intertwined. According to the NY Daily News, Meanwell has filed court papers demanding that A-Rod’s new lawyer Joe Tacopina be removed from his case because she uses an attorney from the same firm.
Tacopina’s partner, Stephen Turano, is representing Meanwell in the stalking and extortion case. Meanwell claims to have shared details with Turano about her alleged conversations with Cashman, during which she says the Yankees GM told her he “knew of Yankee clubhouse steroid use by various Yankee players by name” and “was ambivalent to the use of performance enhancement drugs so long as nothing came back to the Yankee organization.”
Meanwell also claims Cashman told her that he misled investigators who were looking into former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens’ alleged performance-enhancing drug use.
Tacopina has insisted there is no conflict of interest, noting that Turano is not representing Meanwell through their Manhattan-based firm but a separate firm in New Jersey. He also insisted he has never spoken to Turano about Meanwell or her case pertaining to Cashman. However, a legal expert reportedly told the Daily News that a conflict exists even if the two firms are separate.
“The problem is that the lawyer (could) be less than loyal to one client or the other,” the source said.
Whether Meanwell is guilty of what she has been accused or not, her assertion that there is a conflict of interest makes sense. Tacopina has already began digging deep into Rodriguez’s case and has come hard at the Yankees, so the last thing A-Rod needs is to lose him.
H/T SB Nation
