| Description: | Reggie suspension review to be sought |
| Text of article: | Reggie suspension review to be sought
By JOE CYAN JR. New Orleans bureau
NEW ORLEANS—An at t orney for former Crowley City Judge Edmund Reggie said Monday that he'll ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider its 4-3 decision to suspend Reggie from practicing law in Louisiana until mid-1990.
The high court on Friday suspended Reggie, father-in-law of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., for 30 months, retroactive to Dec. 16,1903, when the court suspended him indefinitely on an interim basis because of his federal convictions: charges of misapplication of bank funds.
The order means Reggie is under suspension until June 16,1996.
The state Bar Association's disciplinary board had recommended in January that Reggie, 67, be suspended for one year retroactive to Dec. 16,1993., If the high court had accepted that recommendation Reggie would have been free to resume practicing law in Louisiana.
"I was quite surprised at the court not taking the recommendation of the disciplinary board, Reggie
said Monday.
His attorney, Camile Gravel of Alexandria, said the high court should have afforded Reggie a hearing if its intention was to reject the board's recommendation, a recommendation that Reggie did not oppose.
"I must say I -was very surprised that the, Supreme Court acted in the man- ner in which they did," Gravel said. "I'm very much concerned with that action not being in accord with the court's own rules."
Gravel said he has 14 days to petition the court to reconsider its ruling. -
Prior to the disciplinary board's recommendation, a three-member hearing committee had recommended a six-month suspension, while G. Fred Ours, deputy disciplinary counsel of the Bar Association's Office of Disciplinary.Counsel, had recommended a suspension in the range of 18-30 months.
Last month, though, Ours said he hadd no objection to the board's recommendation.
Justices Harry Lemmon, Catherine "Kitty" Kimball, Bernette Johnson and Jeffrey Victory voted for the 30-month suspension, rioting the "seri:
ousness of the crime for which respondent stands convicted."
Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr. and Justices Walter Marcus Jr. and James Dennis dissented, saying they would have followed the disciplinary board's recommendation and suspended Reggie for one year retroactive to Dec. 10,1993.
One member of the disciplinary board, T. Haller Jackson had called the recommended one-year suspension 'too lenient" and said a two-year suspension would be "more in line with similar cases."
Reggie was convicted in 1992 of misapplying funds of Acadia Savings & Loan of Crowley, a thrift he started in 1959. He also pleaded no contest in 1993 to another misapplication charge, thus ending the federal criminal case against him.
Reggie served 120 consecutive days of home detention and paid a $30,000 fine as a result of his federal convictions.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is seeking $40 million from Reggie and several others because of the 1987 failure of Acadia Savings. Reggie was charged in a 13-count indictment involving transactions at the thrift. He was acquitted on six counts in his first trial in June 1992. In his second trial three months Inter, hee was convicted on two charges, but U.S. District Judge John Show threw out one of them.
Reggie pleaded no contest to one charge in July 1993, and the remaining four charges were dismissed. |
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