First, the feds accused rising star defense attorney Beau Brindley of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Now, they say another lawyer in his office was also involved.
Defense attorney Michael Thompson was charged Thursday night with conspiring with Brindley to encourage witnesses to lie under oath and to obstruct justice.
A new indictment containing the allegations against Thompson also increases to six the number of cases in which Brindley is accused of illegally putting his thumb on the scales of justice.
Thompson could not be reached for comment Friday.
But Brindley — a high-flying young attorney who has argued in front of the Supreme Court — has strenuously denied the charges since a raid on his Loop office last year sent shockwaves through Chicago’s legal community.
Even while he fights the case against him, Brindley continues to represent other defendants in several large drug cases.
But his defense of his own case suffered a major setback in November when Maria Collazo — a co-defendant in his perjury case — pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against him.
Collazo, 30, admitted she lied on the stand at a cocaine dealing trial in 2009 — but said she did so only at Brindley’s urging.
The new allegations against Brindley now stretch to include encouraging a witness to lie in a 2010 harassment trial and encouraging witnesses to lie at three heroin trials, in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Thompson and Brindley are both accused of lying in 2012 when they claimed that a witness at the Metropolitan Correctional Center had asserted his Fifth Amendment right against testifying before a federal grand jury in a murder case and of lying when they said a defendant was vomiting and too sick to come to court.
Both lawyers face up to 20 years if convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.
