Post by guest on Mar 24, 2010 23:54:47 GMT -5
Death penalty lawyer admits stealing $200,000 from Capital Appeals Project
The former director of a nonprofit death penalty appeals agency has admitted stealing more than $200,000 from the office he was hired to run in 2004, and awaits sentencing in April at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.
Jelpi Picou, 49, resigned abruptly in November as state officials were headed to the New Orleans office to inspect the financial records he kept. At least $100,000 in state and other public funds were missing.
On Feb. 26, Picou pleaded guilty as charged to five counts of theft, having bilked $202,701 from the Capital Appeals Project between 2005 and 2009. He is hoping that Judge Robin Pittman will consider ordering restitution and probation.
"The state does not oppose probation," is handwritten on Picou's guilty plea form in his thin case file at court.
Theft of more than $500 carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Pittman scheduled sentencing for April 30.
The case moved quickly and quietly through court. Picou was charged with theft on Feb. 23 and three days later pled guilty, represented by Steve Singer, a law professor who helped rebuild the public defender program after Hurricane Katrina.
Picou was an enthusiastic advocate of poor defendants in the wake of Katrina, as the criminal justice system struggled to recover from the floodwaters.
"I truly believe that we are on the cusp of something new and better," Picou told a reporter in the summer of 2006. "It's what gets me out of bed every morning."
Judge Laurie White gave Picou a $25,000 recognizance bond, to which the district attorney's office didn't object.
Picou may be eligible to have the convictions someday expunged, and it appears he is cooperating with the various investigations that have followed his resignation.
A month after his resignation, on Dec. 19, 2009, he voluntarily agreed to have the Louisiana Supreme Court suspend his law license. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates attorney misconduct and reports to the high court, filed a joint petition with Picou for the interim suspension.
The Capital Appeals Project, which has an office at 636 Baronne St., was formed in 2001 to handle direct appeals in cases where juries have sentenced convicts to death row.
Picou successfully led his agency in winning a reversal of the death penalty for a child rapist in 2008, prompting the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional for rapists.
Veteran appeals lawyer Sarah Ottinger has been named the director of The Capital Appeals Project.
www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/03/death_penalty_lawyer_admits_to.html
The former director of a nonprofit death penalty appeals agency has admitted stealing more than $200,000 from the office he was hired to run in 2004, and awaits sentencing in April at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.
Jelpi Picou, 49, resigned abruptly in November as state officials were headed to the New Orleans office to inspect the financial records he kept. At least $100,000 in state and other public funds were missing.
On Feb. 26, Picou pleaded guilty as charged to five counts of theft, having bilked $202,701 from the Capital Appeals Project between 2005 and 2009. He is hoping that Judge Robin Pittman will consider ordering restitution and probation.
"The state does not oppose probation," is handwritten on Picou's guilty plea form in his thin case file at court.
Theft of more than $500 carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Pittman scheduled sentencing for April 30.
The case moved quickly and quietly through court. Picou was charged with theft on Feb. 23 and three days later pled guilty, represented by Steve Singer, a law professor who helped rebuild the public defender program after Hurricane Katrina.
Picou was an enthusiastic advocate of poor defendants in the wake of Katrina, as the criminal justice system struggled to recover from the floodwaters.
"I truly believe that we are on the cusp of something new and better," Picou told a reporter in the summer of 2006. "It's what gets me out of bed every morning."
Judge Laurie White gave Picou a $25,000 recognizance bond, to which the district attorney's office didn't object.
Picou may be eligible to have the convictions someday expunged, and it appears he is cooperating with the various investigations that have followed his resignation.
A month after his resignation, on Dec. 19, 2009, he voluntarily agreed to have the Louisiana Supreme Court suspend his law license. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates attorney misconduct and reports to the high court, filed a joint petition with Picou for the interim suspension.
The Capital Appeals Project, which has an office at 636 Baronne St., was formed in 2001 to handle direct appeals in cases where juries have sentenced convicts to death row.
Picou successfully led his agency in winning a reversal of the death penalty for a child rapist in 2008, prompting the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional for rapists.
Veteran appeals lawyer Sarah Ottinger has been named the director of The Capital Appeals Project.
www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/03/death_penalty_lawyer_admits_to.html