Online Anonymous Posts By AUSA Draw Proposed Sanction
A Louisiana Hearing Committee has proposed discipline for a former FBI Special Agent and Chief Litigation Counsel for the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana who posted anonymous online comments.
The comments offered opinions on guilt in a case he was prosecuting and on the Danziger Bridge case, in which he was not personally involved.
The Times Picayune told the story
In NOLA.com comments that led to a shakeup in the U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans, former federal prosecutor Sal Perricone used the writer H.L. Mencken’s name as one of his pseudonyms for provocative observations on politicians, judges and even his own colleagues. So perhaps it’s fitting that Perricone is trying his hand as a writer.
Perricone has penned a crime novel, “Blue Steel Crucifix,” that, according an online description, involves murder, politics, public corruption, the FBI and the mob, set in and around New Orleans. Perricone is scheduled to appear at Garden District Book Shop on March 22 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for a book signing.
The novel’s protagonist, according to the description, is a native American law school graduate who joins the FBI and is assigned to a task force investigating mob control of Louisiana’s elected officials and federal agents. The victims include an associate of a former governor who is shot in the head and a former mob accountant.
There’s no word whether Perricone culled from his experiences in seeking fodder for the book. Before his career as a federal prosecutor for more than 20 years, Perricone was an FBI agent, a New Orleans police officer and a Jefferson Parish deputy sheriff.
Perricone retired from the U.S. attorney’s office in 2012 amid an investigation into the identities of anonymous online commentators on NOLA.com. Using the alias “Henry L. Menchen1951,” he had let loose on landfill owner Fred Heebe — whose own investigation outed Perricone — U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and other officials.
His secret commentary led to a defamation suit and opened the door to several convicted politicians to seek new trials. It also led to to the downfall of one of his boss Jim Letten’s top assistant, Jan Maselli Mann. Letten also resigned as U.S. attorney amid the online scandal in his office.
He testified that the misconduct was a reaction to stress.
The sanction proposed is a two-year suspension with one year stayed. The committee chair would fully stay the suspension.
He has been volunarily self-suspended for over five years. (Mike Frisch)