Former high profile trial lawyer Pierce O’Donnell, who has been released from a two month prison term in relation to charges of an offense which involved misrepresentation, fraud, deceit or the use of dishonesty by funneling illegal campaign contributions to former Sen. John Edwards
The National Law Journal reports that O’Donnell was due to report to a halfway house in Hollywood after serving his 60 days’ prison.
O’Donnell, of O’Donnell & Associates in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to reimbursing employees who in 2003 made $26,000 in donations to the failed presidential campaign of former U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.). He was released on July 3 from a minimum-security prison in Lompoc, Calif., but his sentence requires that he serve another year under supervised release, including the halfway house stint.
O’Donnell filed a document on July 24 asking to be allowed to serve that time under house arrest. U.S. District Judge James Otero in Los Angeles scheduled an expedited hearing on O’Donnell’s request for Aug. 3.
The government was still preparing its formal response, but “believes that if Mr. O’Donnell requires surgery, then his four-month stay in a halfway house should be delayed so he can serve that part of his sentence,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, in an e-mailed statement.
In court documents, O’Donnell’s attorney, Frederick Friedman, of counsel at Jones Day in Los Angeles, wrote that his client suffers from “severe osteoarthritis of the right hip and severe chronic pain” and that his doctors have recommended hip replacement surgery as soon as possible. Combined with a herniated disc and other spinal problems, O’Donnell’s afflictions have caused him “ongoing pain on a daily basis,” Friedman wrote.
