Peter Gersten

{{Short description|American attorney (born 1942)}} {{Infobox person | name = Peter Alan Gersten | image =  | alt =  | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1942}} | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Lawyer | years_active = | movement = Disclosure movement | known_for = UFO litigation | notable_works = }} '''Peter Gersten''' (born 1942)<ref name="pnt">{{cite news |last1=Tsetsi |first1=Eric |title=Sedona Vortex Jumper Peter Gersten Wanders Home After Vortex Fails to Open |url=https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/sedona-vortex-jumper-peter-gersten-wanders-home-after-vortex-fails-to-open-6648932 |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Phoenix New Times |date=December 22, 2012}}</ref> is an American attorney known for his representation of UFO claimants including Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum; J. Allen Hynek; and others. In retirement, Gersten has been an unofficial hiking docent in Sedona, Arizona, where he volunteers to lead frequent excursions to Bell Rock.

Gersten has worked in the Brooklyn District Attorney's office; the Navajo County, Arizona Public Defender's Office; and as a partner at the New York law firm of Rothblatt, Rothblatt, Seijas, and Peskin.

==Early life and education== Born 1942, Gersten graduated from Brooklyn Law School and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1971.<ref>{{cite web |title=azbar.org |url=https://www.azbar.org/for-legal-professionals/practice-tools-management/member-directory/ |publisher=State Bar of Arizona}}</ref>

==Career== Early in his career, Gersten worked as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.<ref name="bushman"/> In 1972, he prosecuted three inmates at the Brooklyn House of Detention for the murder of fellow inmate Louis Olivares, despite jail officials, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, and the New York Police Department (NYPD) all ruling the death a suicide.<ref name="nyt1">{{cite news |title=3 Accused of Inmate's Murder In Brooklyn Jail Ordered Freed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/09/archives/3-accused-of-inmates-murder-in-brooklyn-jail-ordered-freed.html |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=New York Times |date=December 9, 1975}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Henry |last2=Kiernan |first2=Joseph |date=September 7, 1972 |title=3 Inmates Named in a Jail Murder |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-3-inmates-named-in-a-jail-mur/181463631/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=New York Daily News}}</ref> During the course of the trial, Gersten acknowledged that, as a prosecutor, he was "young and inexperienced" and that the case should not have been brought.<ref name="nyt1"/><ref name="rd">{{cite news |date=December 9, 1975 |title=Inmates Acquitted of Murder Charge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-reporter-dispatch/181463693/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Reporter Dispatch |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> The three inmates were acquitted and Gersten resigned his office and entered private practice as a partner at the New York law firm of Rothblatt, Rothblatt, Seijas, and Peskin.<ref name="nyt1"/><ref name="rd"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Peterson |first1=Gary |date=March 2, 1978 |title=UFO watchers say we've had 31 close encounters |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-capital-times/181463750/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=The Capital Times}}</ref> {{external media | topic = The trial of Lee Walker | caption = "ADA Anthony Schepis, Judge Barry Salman, Lee Walker, Lincoln Hosp. Doctor, Def. Att. Peter Gersten" by Ida Libby Dengrove (courtroom sketch) | headerimage= alt=Pencil and brush icon|x40px|left | title =

| image1 = [https://archives.law.virginia.edu/resources/184198/object/98902] }} Gersten's later law practice focused on criminal defense.<ref>{{cite news |title=UFO Requests Flood Agencies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/172918048/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Baltimore Sun |date=April 25, 1998}}</ref> In 1985, he represented Lee Ernest Walker in his trial for the murder of NYPD officer Juan Andino.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Blanchet |first1=Brenton |title=Man Who Killed NYPD Officer After Taking Sunglasses from Store Released After Serving 40 Years in Prison |url=https://people.com/man-who-killed-nypd-officer-released-after-serving-40-years-8780472 |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=PEOPLE |date=January 25, 2025}}</ref>

By the 1990s, Gersten had moved to Arizona, where he worked in the Navajo County Public Defender's Office. He later retired to Sedona.<ref name="si"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Cable Show Zooms in on Reports of Mysterious Spacecraft |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/647005879 |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Tucson Citizen |date=February 7, 1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Grady |first1=Daniel |last2=Meskil |first2=Paul |date=July 4, 1984 |title=Charge[d] Suspect Killed, Boasted |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/181464058/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=New York Daily News}}</ref>

=== UFO litigation === Gersten has been referred to as "the UFO lawyer".<ref name="fee"/> He became interested in UFOs as a child and, during his law career, devoted a large amount of time to UFO-related litigation.<ref name="bushman"/> In the 1980s he set-up a UFO hotline in area code 914 where callers could leave a recorded message detailing their supposed UFO sightings and other callers could hear recently recorded messages.<ref name="bushman"/> Gersten claimed to witness the so-called Hudson Valley UFO sightings.<ref name="bushman">{{cite news |last1=Bushman |first1=David |date=June 11, 1984 |title=Peekskill Lawyer Has Extraterrestrial Interests at Heart |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-reporter-dispatch-peekskill-lawyer-h/180772466/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Reporter Dispatch}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Frost |first1=Edward |last2=Vic |first2=Ziminsky |date=October 31, 1984 |title=Hundreds Report Sighting of UFO |work=Citizen Register |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/citizen-register/181464136/ A1]-[https://www.newspapers.com/article/citizen-register/181464195/ A10]}}</ref>

On January 8, 1999, Gersten joined Stephen Bassett, Steven Greer, Richard C. Hoagland, William Birnes, and Jim Marrs as a guest on ''Coast to Coast AM'' with Art Bell to discuss the topic of "UFO disclosure".<ref>{{cite web |title=Art Bell Vault: UFO Supershows |url=https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/art-bell-vault-ufo-supershows/ |website=coasttocoastam.com |publisher=Coast to Coast AM |access-date=August 5, 2025}}</ref> Gersten appears in the 2013 documentary ''Mirage Men'', which puts forth the idea that UFO mythology was seeded into the public imagination by the U.S. armed forces to provide cover for classified military projects.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mirage Men - Full Cast & Crew |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/mirage-men/cast/2000198234/ |website=tvguide.com |publisher=TV Guide |access-date=August 5, 2025}}</ref><ref name=HR>{{cite web|title='Tantalizing documentary suggests UFO folklore was deliberately fabricated under a U.S. psychological warfare program.|date=13 June 2013 |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/mirage-men-film-review-568349|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref>

====Ground Saucer Watch lawsuit==== In 1977, Gersten represented the UFO group Ground Saucer Watch (GSW) in a FOIA filing, and subsequent lawsuit, against the CIA, for documents GSW alleged they held about UFOs.<ref name="klass">{{cite book |last1=Klass |first1=Philip |title=UFOs: The Public Deceived |date=1983 |publisher=Prometheus |isbn=0879753226 |pages=7–15}}</ref><ref name="si">{{cite news |title=Peter Gersten's 'Leap of Faith' |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2011/07/p25.pdf |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Skeptical Inquirer |date=July 2011}}</ref> Gersten had contacted several UFO groups offering his legal counsel ''pro bono'' but, according to him, only GSW responded.<ref name="klass"/> GSW's interest in seeking UFO records from the CIA was inspired by a recently-joined member, W. Todd Zechel, who alleged he had worked in covert roles for the U.S. Government and was aware of the suppression of UFO evidence by the U.S. Intelligence Community.<ref name="klass"/> In response to Gersten's initial FOIA request, the CIA promptly proposed to Gersten to "search their complete files, when they didn't have to" leaving the attorney surprised.<ref name="klass"/> While the agency released nearly 900 pages of files, approximately 50 potentially responsive pages were withheld, which Gersten successfully sued to declassify.<ref name="si"/>

Philip Klass characterized the released files as non-extraordinary in nature.<ref name="klass"/> According to ''Skeptical Inquirer'', addressing the matter of the 50 withheld pages, these were apparently retained primarily due to the potential they might reveal surveillance capabilities rather than any information about UFOs.<ref name="si"/> For example, ''Skeptical Inquirer'' noted, "there was one instance in which the CIA listened in on a Cuban Air Force pilot discussing a UFO sighting. The problem wasn’t the UFO sighting; it was that we didn’t want the Cubans to know we’d been able to listen in on their pilots’ conversations".<ref name="si"/>

{{external media | float = right | caption = Interviews of Peter Gersten | headerimage= alt=YouTube logo|x20px|left | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQOETs98YP0 Gersten interviewed in 1981 by Tom Snyder] | video2 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndEzEgWZmpw Gersten interviewed in 2007 by Paul Kimball] }}

====Other litigation==== In 1977 Gersten co-founded, with Zechel, Citizens Against UFO Secrecy.<ref name="klass"/> Gersten also provided legal representation to J. Allen Hynek.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ferguson |first1=Van Alden |date=August 4, 2025 |title=UFOs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/246806016/ |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Hartford Courant |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant/181464296/ H1]-[https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant/181464346/ H2]}}</ref>

In the mid-1980s, he unsuccessfully represented Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum in their $20 million lawsuit against the United States Government for injuries they claimed to have suffered during their alleged 1980 UFO encounter.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cox |first1=Billy |date=February 3, 1985 |title=They're waiting for us to die |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1133302558 |access-date=August 4, 2025 |work=Florida Today |pages=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/florida-today/181464395/ 1F]-[https://www.newspapers.com/article/florida-today/181464433/ 7F]}}</ref><ref name="fee">{{cite book |last1=Fee |first1=Christopher R. |title=American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore |date=2016|quote="... Peter Gersten, the flamboyant "UFO lawyer," filed claims for a total of $20,000,000 on behalf of the witnesses. |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1610695688 |page=201}}</ref>

Following the 1997 publication of ''The Day After Roswell'', Gersten — on behalf of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy — sued the United States Government seeking release of documents alleging UFO retrieval described by author Philip Corso.<ref>{{cite news |date=March 30, 1998 |title=Scottsdale UFO Group Sues, Seeking Truth, Files of Roswell |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-arizona-republic-scottsdale-ufo-grou/181464473/ |work=Arizona Republic}}</ref> The lawsuit was dismissed by Roslyn O. Silver of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in April 1999.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Citizens Against UFO v. ARMY |litigants-force-plain= |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona |date=April 26, 1999 |url= |quote= |postscript= }}</ref>

In 1999, Gersten threatened to sue Winston over copy to an ad the cigarette company ran that read "If aliens are smart enough to travel to space, why do they keep abducting the dumbest people on Earth?"<ref>{{cite news |title=Play It Again |url= |work=Tobacco Control |date=March 2000}}</ref>

==Personal life== In a 1984 story on Gersten for the ''Reporter Dispatch'', columnist David Bushman described him as "a cool-looking character — blue shades, shirt unbuttoned to the chest, tie untied. The kind of guy who struts into his Tarrytown law office, briefcase in hand, as if he just flew in from California and has a plane waiting to take him somewhere across the world. He kept making phone calls in the middle of the interview".<ref name="bushman"/> A 1988 story on Gersten by Associated Press reporter David Bauder noted he drove a Porsche with the vanity license plate "UFOSREAL".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bauder |first=David |date=November 20, 1988 |title=Hot spot for UFO fans: N.Y.'s Hudson Valley draws the hopeful faithful each night |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-20-mn-572-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250819142341/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-20-mn-572-story.html |archive-date=August 19, 2025 |access-date=September 21, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |pages=2 |url-access=subscription |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> thumb|Gersten frequently climbs Arizona's Bell Rock (''pictured'').

===Top of Bell Rock Club=== After retirement, Gersten became involved in the CouchSurfing community.<ref name="couch">{{cite web |title=Peter Gersten and the TBRC |url=https://blog.couchsurfing.com/the-tbrc/ |website=couchsurfing.com |date=9 August 2017 |publisher=CouchSurfing |access-date=August 4, 2025}}</ref> According to an interview with the company's blog, he hosts visitors who agree to climb with him to the top of Arizona's Bell Rock in an unofficial group known as the "Top of Bell Rock Club".<ref name="couch"/>

During the 2012 Winter Solstice, Gersten announced his intent to enter an interdimensional vortex he believed would materialize at Bell Rock.<ref name="pnt"/> When the vortex failed to materialize, he "returned to his Earthly home in Sedona", according to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.<ref name="pnt"/>

As of 2016, according to an article in the Northern Arizona University student newspaper ''The Lumberjack'', Gersten — then 74 years old — was leading an average of four hikes to Bell Rock each week<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dudley |first1=Isaac |title=The Runout: a weekly tribute to everything outdoors |url=https://www.jackcentral.org/culture/the-runout-a-weekly-tribute-to-everything-outdoors/article_d8ad4d66-a0bf-11e6-93dc-bb2bb4e48942.html |access-date=August 5, 2025 |work=The Lumberjak |publisher=Northern Arizona University |date=November 4, 2016}}</ref> and, by the following year, had inducted more than 2,000 people into membership in his Top of Bell Rock Club.<ref name="couch"/>

==See also== * Daniel Sheehan (attorney)

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book |last1=Crockford |first1=Susannah |title=Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona |date=2021 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226777917 |pages=64–93}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|5547569}} * [https://audioboom.com/posts/7174818-obscura-002-we-are-not-alone-peter-gersten Biographical interview with Peter Gersten on the Obscura podcast] * [https://blog.couchsurfing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Peter1-1024x769.jpg Gersten (right) pictured in about 2017] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gersten, Peter}} Category:1942 births Category:Brooklyn Law School alumni Category:Lawyers from New York City Category:People from Sedona, Arizona Category:Living people Category:Ufologists