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4.2.12 WC: 191694 Bakker wrote me a long handwritten letter from prison imploring me to join his appellate team and save him from a lifetime of imprisonment. There was not enough time before the appellate brief had to be filed for me to take over the entire appeal, but I was particularly appalled by the length of the sentence and the religiously discriminatory reason the judge gave for imposing it. I agreed therefore to brief and argue the sentencing issue on the appeal (a team of Texas lawyer had been retained long before to argue against the conviction). This is how a New York Times journalist characterized the oral argument: Last June, barely a week before their brief was due, the Houston lawyers handling Mr. Bakker's appeal, Don Ervin and Brian Wice, learned that Mr. Dershowitz was joining their legal team. He was to handle only a small part of Mr. Bakker's appeal, concerning the 45- year sentence meted out by Judge Robert D. Potter. Mr. Dershowitz insisted he would remain in the background. But that, it turned out, was a bit like George Steinbrenner's saying "Yogi Berra is my manager for the rest of the year." In October, when the Bakker appeal was argued, it was around Mr. Dershowitz that everyone clustered... Even his co-counsel, two Texans schooled in a tradition of great oratory, were dazzled by what they saw in court. "It was kind of like watching a terrific maestro in front of an orchestra," Mr. Ervin said. Mr. Wice called the performance "mesmerizing" and added: "He looks like a schlep, wearing suits he could have bought in Filene's Basement, woolen socks, and shoes -- I don't know if they still call them Earth shoes. But the judges hung on every word he had to say and bought what he was selling." Nonetheless, Mr. Wice couldn’t resist noting what he called Mr. Dershowitz’s predilection for publicity. “I’ve discovered that the most dangerous place to be in the criminal justice system is not the Federal Penitentiary at Marion or the holding cell at the Tombs, but between Alan Dershowitz and a television camera.” Mr. Dershowitz relished the chance to take on Judge Potter (nicknamed "Maximum Bob" for his harsh sentencing), with whom he'd tangled in a previous case. "This is a judge who doesn't understand the difference between a year and a decade, who always adds a zero to the sentence other judges would impose," Mr. Dershowitz said. Jim Bakker did not have such nice things to say about his other lawyers: Alan Dershowitz did an outstanding job highlighting the errors in my case and in my sentencing. That same could not be said, however, of my Texas attorneys’ attempt to contest the merits of the case. Their arguments were confusing and unconvincing. At one point they implied to the judges that I had not intended to defraud the PTL Partners, merely deceive them. “You can intend to deceive but not intend to defraud,” my lawyer said. “It is not against the law in this context to deceive. Of course, I had intended to do 303 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017390