Prominent La. Lawyer Jailed After Courthouse Altercation
Madro Bandaries says fellow Louisiana attorney J. Robert Ates started the battle by grabbing his shirt and pushing him to the courthouse floor.
But colleagues of Ates claim Bandaries sparked the dispute by grabbing the 40-year practitioner’s tie, as the two were about to participate in a hearing about a proposed $35 million class action settlement in a hurricane insurance coverage case, reports the Associated Press.
Judge Kern Reese of Orleans Parish Civil District Court apparently was persuaded by Bandaries’ side of the story: By the time the hearing began today, Ates, who is an adjunct professor at Tulane University School of Law, had been led away in handcuffs to serve a 24-hour jail sentence, the news agency recounts. The judge also fined him $100.
Reese listened to testimony from several courtroom witnesses before reaching his conclusion, although he apparently didn’t initially give Ates a chance to tell his side of the story, according to AP and the Times-Picayune. “The one thing I am not going to tolerate is lawyers being unprofessional,” the judge said as he concluded that Bandaries had been attacked, the New Orleans newspaper reports.
Friends of Ates sought appellate court intervention to set bond and review his sentence, but got no immediate response, according to AP.
