Post by Banjo on Jul 16, 2015 7:05:42 GMT 7
The homeless man who went to Harvard Law with John Roberts
The judge settled his gaze on the homeless man accused of sleeping beside an office building in downtown Washington.
It was a Saturday afternoon in early April at D.C. Superior Court, and Alfred Postell, a diagnosed schizophrenic, stood before Judge Thomas Motley.
Postell’s hair was medium length and graying. His belly spilled over his pants. A tangled beard hung from his jowls.
“You have the right to remain silent,” a deputy clerk told Postell, according to a transcript of the arraignment. “Anything you say, other than to your attorney, can be used against you.”
“I’m a lawyer,” Postell replied.
Motley ignored the seemingly bizarre assertion, mulling over whether Postell, charged with unlawful entry, posed a flight risk.
“I have to return,” Postell protested, offering a convoluted explanation: “I passed the Bar at Catholic University, was admitted to Constitution Hall. I swore the Oath of Office as an attorney at Constitution Hall in 1979; graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979.”
That got Motley’s attention. He’d also graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979.
“Mr. Postell, so did I,” Motley said. “I remember you.”
This homeless man — who totes his belongings in white plastic bags, haunts the intersection of 17th and I streets NW and sometimes sleeps at a church — studied law alongside U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold. All of them graduated from Harvard in 1979.
Motley, who declined to be interviewed for this story, paused for a moment before concluding, “But I have no choice in the matter.”
He ordered his former classmate back to the D.C. jail until the charges against him could be resolved.
Alfred Postell, who is a diagnosed schizophrenic, haunts the intersection of 17th and I streets in Northwest Washington.
In a city with thousands of homeless people, Postell may be the District’s most academically distinguished. Diplomas, awards and certificates clutter a closet at his mother’s apartment, buried artifacts of a lost life. He holds three degrees: one in accounting, one in economics, and one in law.
On a summer evening, he sits inside a McDonald’s on 17th Street NW, a white towel wrapped around his head like a turban.
Listening to him talk about his life is like dive-bombing into a dream. Everything at first sounds normal. But things quickly fall into disorder. The chronology hiccups. Incongruous thoughts collide.
Read more.
www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-homeless-man-who-graduated-from-harvard-law-school-with-chief-justice-john-roberts/2015/07/13/63257b5c-20ca-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html?tid=sm_tw
The judge settled his gaze on the homeless man accused of sleeping beside an office building in downtown Washington.
It was a Saturday afternoon in early April at D.C. Superior Court, and Alfred Postell, a diagnosed schizophrenic, stood before Judge Thomas Motley.
Postell’s hair was medium length and graying. His belly spilled over his pants. A tangled beard hung from his jowls.
“You have the right to remain silent,” a deputy clerk told Postell, according to a transcript of the arraignment. “Anything you say, other than to your attorney, can be used against you.”
“I’m a lawyer,” Postell replied.
Motley ignored the seemingly bizarre assertion, mulling over whether Postell, charged with unlawful entry, posed a flight risk.
“I have to return,” Postell protested, offering a convoluted explanation: “I passed the Bar at Catholic University, was admitted to Constitution Hall. I swore the Oath of Office as an attorney at Constitution Hall in 1979; graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979.”
That got Motley’s attention. He’d also graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979.
“Mr. Postell, so did I,” Motley said. “I remember you.”
This homeless man — who totes his belongings in white plastic bags, haunts the intersection of 17th and I streets NW and sometimes sleeps at a church — studied law alongside U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold. All of them graduated from Harvard in 1979.
Motley, who declined to be interviewed for this story, paused for a moment before concluding, “But I have no choice in the matter.”
He ordered his former classmate back to the D.C. jail until the charges against him could be resolved.
Alfred Postell, who is a diagnosed schizophrenic, haunts the intersection of 17th and I streets in Northwest Washington.
In a city with thousands of homeless people, Postell may be the District’s most academically distinguished. Diplomas, awards and certificates clutter a closet at his mother’s apartment, buried artifacts of a lost life. He holds three degrees: one in accounting, one in economics, and one in law.
On a summer evening, he sits inside a McDonald’s on 17th Street NW, a white towel wrapped around his head like a turban.
Listening to him talk about his life is like dive-bombing into a dream. Everything at first sounds normal. But things quickly fall into disorder. The chronology hiccups. Incongruous thoughts collide.
Read more.
www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-homeless-man-who-graduated-from-harvard-law-school-with-chief-justice-john-roberts/2015/07/13/63257b5c-20ca-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html?tid=sm_tw
