Patrick Steinfeld

The public court appointed Deputy Public Defender Walid Kandil and entered the non-guilty plea on Burke's behalf.

Patrick Steinfeld, the attorney representing Celeste's family in the civil case, called it unfathomable that taxpayers would be forced to fund Burke's defense.

He pointed to what former financial manager Benjamin Gregor said under oath.

At the preliminary hearing, Gregor testified that Burke earned roughly 10 million to 11 and a half million dollars in gross income from recording merchandise and music publishing between '23 and '25.

[suspenseful music] We got our hands on this bombshell 20-page lawsuit filed against singer David by the family of the teenage girl he's accused of murdering.

And I also spoke with the man behind the suit, her family's attorney, Patrick Steinfeld, to not only discuss this case, but also what may be happening with the criminal trial, including whether anyone else has been investigated.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber.

And I will tell you, the reason goes back to this topic right now, it seems that litigation has officially arrived.

Now, we already gave you an overview of this lawsuit on a previous episode as the details started to come out through public reporting.

But now we actually have a copy of the lawsuit, and more importantly, we got a chance to bring in Patrick Steinfeld, the attorney representing Celeste's family, who filed this lawsuit on their behalf.

So I'll give you a quick overview of the lawsuit, and then you're gonna hear this interview with Patrick Steinfeld.

I'm calling someone.

The family attorney, by the way, Patrick Steinfeld, previously challenged David's claims that he is broke.

Oh, because didn't he just get a public defender?

He lost his legal team.

Instead of high-powered attorneys experienced in celebrity criminal cases, singer and accused killer David Anthony Burke, David is gonna be represented by LA County Public Defenders at trial.

Now that's no slight on them, but what happened? Could a lack of funds be affecting his defense? Is David, who was apparently once flush with cash, scraping the bottom of the barrel? We're gonna take a look at what we seem to know about the singer's potential money troubles and how the victim's family called David out in a scathing statement.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber.

So Los Angeles is home to more celebrities per capita than probably anywhere else.

And when those celebrities get into legal trouble, they retain the best attorneys that money can buy.

But when they suddenly drop those attorneys or those attorneys decide to withdraw from the case, it could set the rumor mill in motion, right? That is what happened in the David Burke case.

Now, you might know David Anthony Burke as David.