Bernie Kerik upped the ante Tuesday night in his nasty legal fight with celebrity-repping lawyer Joe Tacopina, accusing his ex-buddy in new legal papers of extramarital affairs with TV stars, prescription-drug abuse – and even racketeering.
The disgraced former NYPD commissioner added the stunning new allegations – all of which Tacopina vehemently denies — to a Manhattan federal court complaint amending a previous malpractice lawsuit he filed in January against the lawyer.
The RICO suit seeks a court order to dissolve Tacopina’s law firm, claiming it participated in “racketeering activity” since 2006 to boost profits.
It accuses Tacopina of “inappropriate manipulation of the media to falsely inflate” his “public image” — including through “countless” extramarital affairs.
The suit doesn’t name names, but one of its bombshell claims is that Tacopina had an affair with a married “producer from a major TV network” who’s husband he knew as an “acquaintance.”
“The two began their illicit liaisons at the Heldrich hotel in New Brunswick, N.J,” and Tacopina tried to use the affair to score positive press and steady work from the network as a legal analyst.
The suit also claims Tacopina had a dependence on prescriptions meds, which could have played a part in him allegedly trying to “extort” reporters planning to write negative reports about him.
Tacopina’s lawyer Judd Burstein told The Post the new allegations are not only false, but “irresponsible,” and an “act of desperation.” He also pointed out they bizarrely “have nothing to do with Bernie Kerik.”
“This might be the most incompetent complaint I’ve ever seen,” Burstein said.
Kerik’s attorney Tim Parlatore defended the new filing, saying the alleged “affairs” and “drug abuse” help back up the RICO claim.
The amended suit repeats earlier claims that Tacopina conned Kerik in 2006 to plead guilty to ethics violations in the Bronx, which led to a “snowball of criminal investigations” that ultimately forced the former 9/11 hero to cop additional pleas three years later to federal tax-fraud charges and lying to the White House.
Days after first being sued, Tacopina in January slapped Kerik with defamation suit claiming Kerik fed outrageous “lies” about him to the Daily News for a December “hit piece.”
Tacopina’s long list of A-list clients include shamed Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, whom he recently represented in a failed bid to get A-Rod’s Major League Baseball doping ban overturned.