"ACORN Pimp" arrested, ordered to live with his parents

[Martinus]

This sounds like The Onion but isn't. 

Judge Orders 25-Year-Old O'Keefe To Live With His Parents
Justin Elliott | January 28, 2010, 11:12AM

As if James O'Keefe hasn't suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator's office, getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered that he reside with his parents until the next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25. (Read them here)

The young conservative filmmaker is free on $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 13.

It's not clear where O'Keefe, who hasn't said much publicly since getting out jail, is right now. But his father, the elder James O'Keefe, told the AP "I'm confident this was poor judgment ... but not much more." James and Deborah O'Keefe live in New Jersey, the state where Moore ordered the younger O'Keefe to remain while out on bond.

It's also unclear where O'Keefe lived before the arrest.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/judge_orders_alleged_phone_tamperer_okeefe_to_live.php


When he's out of prison, maybe he could get some help from ACORN. 

[Martinus]

Here's a bit of the backstory about the arrest:

Sen. Mary Landrieu is blasting the men charged with tampering with the phones at her New Orleans office, dismissing a new explanation from the attorney of one of the men as "feeble."

"Senator Landrieu believes this feeble explanation is a clear and calculated effort to divert attention away from the fact that his client stands accused of a federal crime that could land him in prison for up to 10 years," said Landrieu Press Secretary Rob Sawicki, in a statement to TPMmuckraker.

Sawicki added: "The fact remains that they perpetrated a false identity scheme on building security by posing as telephone workers and attempted to manipulate the phones in her office. The only people these four individuals have embarrassed are themselves and their families."

Garrison Jordan, the attorney for Robert Flanagan, told the AP today that his client and the three other men charged in the case were trying to embarrass Landrieu by somehow documenting charges that her staff was ignoring calls from constituents opposed to health care reform.

Jordan told the New York Times the episode "was just an ill-designed stunt with no intent to commit a crime."

The men, including filmmaker James O'Keefe', are charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony -- "maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States of America."

The affidavit alleges that Flanagan and Joseph Basel, dressed as repairmen, asked a Landrieu staffer to direct them to the phone closet after purportedly testing the office phone. When they arrived at the General Services Administration office in the same building, they were denied access to the phone closet after being asked for ID.

Landrieu told the Times today that her staff, skeptical about the men's lack of identification, walked Flanagan and Basel to the GSA office.

[Eddie Teach]

Least convincing pimp ever.