In documents filed last month in U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Assistant U. S. Attorney Thomas Albus said disgraced former Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, has a conflict of interest in representing a client in an immigration case.
Cooper filed the case Aug. 9 just before his resignation as a state representative. He is asking for a writ of mandamus to allow one of his clients, a Bosnian who came to St. Louis in 1999, to be able to live here permanently. Cooper says Elmir Muharemovic has been getting the runaround from the INS and asks that Muharemovic's request to stay here be expedited. Cooper, of course, has pleaded guilty to immigration fraud charges.
In the court documents, Albus wrote: "I wanted the court to know Mr. Cooper pleaded guilty to two felony counts, one of visa fraud and one of making false statements to the government on Aug. 9, 2007, before Judge Hamilton in United States v. Cooper. Additionally, whether or not Mr. Cooper's federal bar license is suspended, it is likely Mr. Cooper will be incarcerated by the end of the year and unable to handle this case. Finally, Mr. Cooper's current position in the above-mentioned criminal case gives rise to a conflict of interest in the civil case. Specifically, Mr. Cooper is seeking consideration from my office at sentencing and seeks to minimize the sentence he faces in the criminal case. At the same time, Mr. Cooper is adverse to my office and must zealously represent his client in the civil case."
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