George J. Koelzer, 69; senator’s lawyer in bribery scandal

George J. Koelzer, a former assistant U.S. attorney who later defended a U.S. senator in the Abscam bribery scandal of the early 1980s and represented others accused of white-collar crimes, died Monday at a South Pasadena facility where he was receiving rehabilitation. He was 69.

Koelzer suffered from multiple illnesses, and the exact cause of death was not known, said his son, James P. Koelzer.

For two months in 1981 the trial of Sen. Harrison A. Williams Jr. kept Koelzer in the news. Williams, a Democrat from New Jersey, was accused of bribery in a case that read like a spy novel. An undercover FBI agent wearing dark glasses and a kaffiyeh played the role of a fictional Arab millionaire dubbed Sheik Yassir Habib. Hidden video cameras recorded conversations between the two men and discussions about a titanium mine in Virginia.

Prosecutors alleged that Williams promised to use his influence to obtain contracts for the phony sheik and to introduce a private immigration bill to help him gain permanent residency in the U.S. For his efforts the senator would become part owner of the mine and ultimately reap a profit of about $12.6 million.

During the trial Koelzer argued that the entire episode had been created, controlled, produced and directed by the FBI; words had been placed in his client’s mouth.

“Does that sort of conduct make you proud to be an American?” he asked the jury during the trial, according to a 1981 Washington Post article. “For me, it breaks my heart.”

Williams was convicted, sentenced to three years in prison and fined $50,000.

The high-profile nature of the trial did not faze Koelzer.

In later years he explained to his son, who is also an attorney, what his experiences had taught him.

“You want to talk to the lawyers who talk about the cases they lost, because that’s where you really learn your lessons,” James Koelzer said his father told him.

Born March 21, 1938, in Orange, N.J., George Koelzer grew up in Newark and earned bachelor’s and law degrees at Rutgers University.

In 1967 he married the former Patricia A. Kilian, who survives him, along with his sisters, Kathryn Kerris of Glen Ridge, N.J., Joan Ball of Oceanport, N.J., and Jeane Regan of Bound Brook, N.J.; and a brother, Robert Koelzer of Smithtown, N.Y.

Shortly after leaving Rutgers, Koelzer became an assistant U.S. attorney for New Jersey, where he prosecuted cases involving organized crime. He left in 1971 and worked at a number of law firms, including Evans, Koelzer, Osborne & Kreizman, where he was employed during the Abscam trial.

In 1992 Koelzer moved to California and joined Lane Powell Spears Lubersky in Los Angeles. He went on to work at other firms, including Archer Norris, which he joined in 2006. In recent years he had handled civil cases. He also represented corporations and individuals being investigated by the U.S. government.

He told his son, “You always know you’ve done your job well if you don’t end up in court, if you represent them during the investigation and make the problem go away.”

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

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jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com