He used a restaurant in Newark, N.J., as a front for a cocaine-distribution network.

He traveled to New York City to oversee a $1,000-an-hour call-girl ring.

He had a witness killed in one drug case and hired a hit man to rub out another.

And he did it all out of his law office.

That's the picture federal authorities have painted in a 39-count racketeering indictment charging prominent New Jersey defense lawyer Paul Bergrin with being the leader of a criminal enterprise that used violence, intimidation, and deceit to generate millions of dollars.

Bergrin, a former federal prosecutor, is to be arraigned today with seven codefendants in U.S. District Court in Newark.

All were named in a superseding indictment handed up earlier this month that expanded on charges originally filed when Bergrin was arrested in May.

At that time, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra said Bergrin, 53, had "essentially become one of the criminals he represents."

He was "no different than a street gangster," added Gerald P. McAleer, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in New Jersey.

Both the DEA and the FBI worked the Bergrin case. In the months since the arrest, court papers have fleshed out their allegations.

Though the indictment includes one murder and one murder conspiracy, investigators contend that witnesses have linked Bergrin to at least three other homicides.

They also say Bergrin routinely bribed witnesses to win cases. And, they contend, when bribery wasn't an option, he resorted to violence.

"No witness, no case" was the phrase he used repeatedly in his criminal-defense work, authorities say.

Witness intimidation is a major problem in drug investigations throughout the country, including Philadelphia and Camden.

In one glaring example, convicted Philadelphia cocaine kingpin Kaboni Savage faces racketeering charges that include 12 murders. Eight are believed to be tied to witness intimidation, including a firebombing that left two women and four children dead.

But there have been few examples of a lawyer playing the direct role that prosecutors allege Bergrin did.

"This is an incredible case . . . a one-of-a kind story, unfortunately," said Miles Feinstein, a lawyer who has worked with Bergrin and who represents a codefendant charged with mortgage and real estate fraud, another of the racketeering allegations.

"It has every element in the world . . . a hit man, sex, drugs."

Feinstein, who described Bergrin as an excellent trial attorney, said many members of the defense bar were shocked when the charges were made public.

One source in the New Jersey underworld who was once a Bergrin client, however, said he and others knew Bergrin as a lawyer who enjoyed life on the edge. The charges, the source said, came as no surprise.