COLUMBUS, Ohio (WKBN) – An Ohio attorney had his license suspended after he threw a potato chip can filled with feces into a parking lot.
The Supreme Court of Ohio suspended Noble County attorney Jack Blakeslee for one year, with six months stayed, for his actions.
The panel said that Blakeslee’s fitness to practice law came into question when he tossed a potato chip can filled with feces into the parking lot of a victim advocacy center.
Blakeslee said he was not targeting the Haven of Hope when he tossed the can, but that he had a habit of placing his waste in a potato chip can and randomly throwing it from his car as he traveled down the road, according to court records.
Blakeslee was representing a defendant in a capital murder case in which the advocacy center was involved, according to court documents.
The court found, based partially on findings from a review of the Board of Professional Conduct, that Blakeslee chose the Haven of Hope parking lot as “his drop zone” to get a thrill from pranking the victim advocates that he would later see in court.
The Board of Professional Conduct recommended that Blakeslee be publically reprimanded, but the court went a step further and suspended his license to practice law.
“However, the evidence in this case shows that despite societal standards of cleanliness and decorum, Blakeslee failed to control his own bizarre impulses to place feces-filled cans out in public for unsuspecting people to find. His aberrant conduct has adversely reflected on his own fitness to practice law and brought discredit to the profession through significant media attention,” the Court stated.
The decision by the high court was not unanimous. Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy and Justices Michael P. Donnelly, Melody Stewart, and Joseph T. Deters joined the opinion. Justice R. Patrick DeWine concurred in judgment only.
Justice Patrick F. Fischer joined the opinion but stated he would vote to impose a two-year suspension, all stayed, and place Blakeslee on two years of probation. Justice Jennifer Brunner did not participate in the case.
Source: https://www.wytv.com/news/local-news/ohio-lawyer-sanctioned-over-feces-filled-potato-chip-can/
