ALBANY — The U.S. Attorney’s Office is questioning whether attorney Kevin A. Luibrand should be removed as counsel to the man accused of setting a 2013 fire in Schenectady that killed a 32-year-old father and his three young children.
In a motion filed in U.S. District Court, a federal prosecutor has asked a judge to schedule a hearing to advise Edward A. Leon that Luibrand has a potential conflict of interest because his law firm also represents an ATF special agent in an unrelated sexual harassment case pending in Kentucky. The agent, Lauren Viup, previously worked in the Albany office of the ATF, and she had been part of the team that reopened the investigation of Leon, leading to his indictment in early August.
“The government requests that the court determine whether a conflict does or could exist, whether the conflict can be waived, and if so, whether the defendant will knowingly waive his right to conflict-free representation,” assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping wrote in the government’s motion…