Lawyer Featured in Katrina Stories Arrested for Alleged E-Mail Threat
A suspended lawyer who got widespread publicity for refusing to abandon his home during Hurricane Katrina is back in the news, this time for an alleged e-mail threat to a federal bankruptcy court.
Ashton O’Dwyer was arrested Friday evening, according to the Associated Press and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He had a loaded handgun at the time of his arrest, according to an FBI news release.
O’Dwyer is accused of sending an e-mail that read in part: “Given the recent ‘security breach’ at 500 Poydras Street, a number of scoundrels might be at risk if I DO become homicidal.” The “security breach” apparently referred to accusations that four people used false pretenses to enter the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Times-Picayune says.
According to AP, the Louisiana Supreme Court cited an unspecified threat of harm when it suspended O’Dwyer’s law license on March 30. A November 2008 story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune says federal judges in the Eastern District of Louisiana suspended O’Dwyer for conduct that included frivolous claims, abusive language and misrepresenting the conduct of opposing lawyers.
The federal judges’ order said O’Dwyer would have to take anger management classes before winning reinstatement. O’Dwyer responded with a motion that said he would submit to anger management classes “only upon the condition that each member of the court first complete ‘charm school,’ ” the November story says.
