Lawyer Files ‘Intentionally Contemptuous’ Motion after Suspension
A New Orleans lawyer suspended for five years from practicing in federal district court has responded with an “intentionally contemptuous” motion.
Lawyer Ashton O’Dwyer informed the Eastern District of Louisiana in the motion that “it may as well disbar him, forever, because he has no intention of ever complying” with the court’s order, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
He also told the court that he would agree to attend anger management classes, a condition of reinstatement, “only upon the condition that each member of the court first complete ‘charm school.’ “
O’Dwyer was in the news when he defied a mandatory evacuation order during Hurricane Katrina. He has clashed with U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval in civil lawsuits seeking Katrina damages and has also criticized Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Catherine Kimball, the story says. O’Dwyer accuses Kimball of making remarks that he claims led to his wrongful arrest for public intoxication, the story says.
The federal court decree says O’Dwyer filed frivolous claims, used abusive language to challenge the court’s authority and misrepresented the conduct of opposing lawyers, the story says.
O’Dwyer has sued more than two dozen city and state officials over the 2005 arrest, during which he was held at a passenger terminal that served as a temporary jail, the Times-Picayune reports in a separate story.
