A Rockland County podiatrist was sentenced to up to three years behind bars for evidence tampering in what was allegedly his second attempt to pay someone to kill his wife.
Foot doctor Ira Bernstein already spent four years behind bars for charges connected to a 2017 murder plot against his now ex-wife Susan Bernstein – and now he’s headed back to the clink after prosecutors said he made another phone call trying to order a hit the mother of his children.
“Ira repeatedly said it was cheaper to have me killed than divorce me,” Susan Bernstein said in court before his Friday sentencing, according to The Journal News.
She argued her former spouse “did not learn a single thing” from his last prison stint.
“The possibility of yet another murder attempt is not speculative,” she added, according to the outlet.
The doctor was initially charged in 2023 with trying to hire a hitman to rub out Susan, who is now a divorce coach, after prosecutors said he was recorded asking a landscaper to carry out the murder.
But the disgraced doctor rejected those allegations in court Friday.
“I never asked or solicited him to hurt you in any way,” he said in reference to the landscaper, according to The Journal News.
“I never wanted to have you harmed and I said no to him,” he insisted.
Bernstein and the Rockland District Attorney’s Office worked out a deal that had the less-than-model husband plead guilty to tampering with physical evidence for his attempt to get rid of a recording of the call.
In the first murder plot, Bernstein conspired with his then-lover to offer a car salesman about $100,000 to fatally mow down Susan in what would appear to be an accident, according to The Journal News.
But the car salesman went to Ramapo police, just like the landscaper did in the most recent case, the outlet reported.
Judge Robert Prisco slammed Bernstein after his lawyer denied the second alleged murder plot, claiming the landscaper initiated the talk with Bernstein.
Prisco questioned why Bernstein did not go to authorities about the phone call.
“I’m not talking about turning himself in,” Prisco reportedly said before handing down a sentence of one-and-a-half years to three years.
Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh said in a statement he hopes the prison term “sends a message loud and clear … that domestic violence in any form, physical, psychological, legal, or otherwise, will not be tolerated.
“It must be stopped and we are glad that the defendant Ira Bernstein was held accountable today for his actions,” the top prosecutor added.
Ira’s sister, Jaclyn Goldberg, was also originally charged with helping him destroy the tape, but prosecutors previously said her case was expected to be an adjournment contemplating dismissal, The Journal News reported.
That means the charge would be dropped if she stays out of trouble for six months.
The Rockland DA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
