Criminal Justice
‘I Just Wanted to Die,’ Former Ohio Legal Eagle Testifies
Posted Apr 7, 2009, 06:51 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Updated: Once a top trial lawyer in Cincinnati, Ken Lawson was taking 100 pills a day when he hit bottom in 2006.
As his admitted addiction to prescription drugs destroyed his law practice and put him, potentially, en route to a prison sentence, "I just wanted to die," Lawson testified tearfully in U.S. District Court today. "I felt overwhelming guilt."
Now a federal judge in Ohio must decide whether Lawson's earlier guilty plea in a drug conspiracy case should require him to do time, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. Lawson testified that he last abused drugs in early 2007, as he was sitting outside a detoxification center about to begin treatment for his addiction. His license to practice law was suspended in 2007.
Lawson and his attorney, David Greer, are arguing for probation, contending that he never sold drugs to others and participated in the conspiracy simply to supply his own drug habit. But Judge Sandra Beckwith found today that Lawson was an organizer of the conspiracy and violated his position of trust as a lawyer, which could weigh in favor of prison, the newspaper recounts.
In the end, Beckwith sentenced Lawson on April 8 to two years in prison, after his sentencing hearing continued into the next day.
"The bottom line is, no one is above the law," she told Lawson. More details are provided in a subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "Once-Renowned Ohio Lawyer Became Client Disaster, Due to Drug Habit"
Updated at 4:55 p.m. on April 8 to provide news of Lawson's sentence.
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