'Scary Yelling' Lawyer on Apprentice Show Quits Asst. Brooklyn DA Day Job
A woman who took a two-month leave of absence from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office to film episodes on The Apprentice with Donald Trump is quitting her $50,000-a-year day job.
But Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy says she is doing so because her new-found celebrity is making it difficult for her to prosecute cases as an assistant DA, not because she was fired, reports the New York Law Journal
“I left my job because I couldn’t really be in a courtroom any more,” she tells the legal publication. While, for the first time in her life, she doesn’t have a career plan for the future, “I think I will be fine,” she says. “I’m an incredibly hard worker. I’m incredibly driven. There’s nothing but good things in my future.”
She was transferred to a lower-profile job handling early case assessment in the district attorney’s office where there was less of a potential for conflicts after The Apprentice premiered Sept. 16.
And District Attorney Charles Hynes apparently was not pleased to learn that she asked for, and received, an unpaid two-month leave this summer in order to be on the television show. It is his policy not to ask the reason for such leave and trust that it is requested for good reason, says a spokesman for the office. Had Hynes known why she requested leave, however, it would have been denied, the legal publication reports.
Meanwhile, several on the show say she is a stereotypical aggressive lawyer. One fellow contestant described her as “scary yelling.”
