Legal Ethics
Lawyer Appeals 90-Day Sentence for Obscene Courtroom Gesture
Posted Jun 9, 2008, 08:17 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A criminal defense lawyer from Austin, Texas, is arguing his 90-day sentence for making an obscene courtroom gesture is excessive.
In papers filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, lawyer Adam Reposa says the hearing into his conduct was not conducted properly, Texas Lawyer reports. "This was not a contempt proceeding at all,” he wrote. “It was a preliminary disbarment proceeding disguised as a contempt hearing.”
Reposa contends a satire in Whoopsy! magazine that appeared to refer to him should not have been introduced at the contempt hearing. The satire claimed to be an ad for "Bulletproof, the DWI Stud.” Reposa calls himself Adam "Bulletproof" Reposa, but he said he had nothing to do with the satirical piece, even though the magazine’s publisher is a friend.
The prosecutor in the contempt hearing, Randy Leavitt, said he introduced the ad to show Reposa’s lack of respect for the law.
Reposa was sentenced after witnesses testified he made a gesture simulating masturbation in court during a hearing in a DWI case. At the time of the contempt hearing, Reposa told reporters the sentence was “fair.”
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