E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA New Orleans attorney was cited for marijuana possession this week after a joint tumbled out of his pocket in front of police, according to media reports.
Police say Jason Cantrell, who has a private practice but also serves as a part-time assistant city attorney, was in the magistrate section of criminal court chatting with police officers when a marijuana joint fell out of his pocket and onto the floor, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.
Cantrell, 43, was a first-time offender and was cited, issued a summons to appear in court for simple possession of marijuana and let go, according to police spokesman Garry Flot.
Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter
The handling of his case is the result of an effort by city leaders and prosecutors two years ago to unclog a congested system and allow people arrested for having a small amount of marijuana on them to receive a summons and not be taken to jail, according to the Times-Picayune.
Besides being a private practice attorney, Cantrell doubles as a part-time city attorney, handling cases in traffic court. He was not working for the city when the incident occurred.
City Hall spokesman Ryan Berni told WDSU that Cantrell has been suspended without pay, pending an investigation.
Cantrell’s wife, LaToya, is a candidate for a district seat on the City Council. She released a statement apologizing for her husband and saying, “I absolutely do not condone his actions,” the New York Daily News reported.
Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com
“I love my husband unconditionally and am very concerned for his health and well-being, and for that of our family,” LaToya said. “I hope that this incident will encourage Jason to seek the professional help.”
Cantrell has practiced civil and criminal law in New Orleans for 17 years, including six as a public defender in juvenile court.
He ran for a position as a judge in juvenile court in 2009 but lost.
More content from NBCNews.com:
Leave a Comment:
His wife says she hopes that this incident will cause him to get professional help? They have doctors who can help with "damn I dropped my doob"? She needs to smoke a fatty with big daddy!
he would have to first admit, he needs help. Druggies and alcoholics rarely admit their problem.
I doubt he needs help Tumbleweed.
i'm sure he can roll his own...cause he knows how to tumble weed...
I am no doctor but if they came to me for a second opinion i would recommend they follow your advice doc
Wow... he needs to seek professional help? She's sorta stupid. His wife totally threw him under the bus lol.
Nice! Smoke em' if you got em'.
all you idiots in favor of this are the reason society is going down the drain, too many potheads think they are actually thinking.
Potheads? Really? Obviously another 3rd grade DARE graduate! You're probably one of those a**hole kids that squealed on their parents for smokin too!
Marijuana makes druggies THINK they are smart.
Are you implying that people that support legal Cannabis is the sole reason for society going "down the drain"? If so, you aren't using your own brain very well in the first place.
see you prove my point by getting upset with what I said, you think you know what is going on but really your head is in such a fog from all the smoke that you can't see reality. If you honestly feel you are in the right there is no need to get defensive and nasty about it. What's the matter is the drug affecting your mood too much and keeping you from having control over your emotions that you go into attack mode against someone who disagrees with you? I am right, you only think you are thinking clearly.
The point is, why should we force this legislation, why not make it a regulated substance instead, allow people to smoke it if they want to
@pragmatic brit.. you mean like cigarettes have been regulated as not fit for kids and yet they still smoke them? Making them legal does not make it right to smoke them. I stand by my comment that all people who smoke this garbage THINK they are thinking clearly.
As for Steveland, show me where anything was said about medical marijuana by me? Nice try to deflect but you are again proving my point that those who smoke this think they are clear headed... try again though, you may get it one of these times.
an attitude like that explains your screen name, no wonder it is just you.
just me-3905469 But is it really any of our buisness to tell people what to put into their bodies, my thinking goes like this "i dont care what you do, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else, i wont stop you from doing it"
I now wouldn't vote for his wife just because of the way she handled the situation.
How about the fact that since lawyers make the laws, that this lawyer use his power or influence to change the law. Until then, how about he follow the law. Until then don't be so stupid as to take it into a courthouse, unless maybe he was under the influence at the time. I couldn't care less one way or the other.
I bet he wished he'd rather have stepped in $hit instead of smoked it. Now he has embarrassed himself and his poor wife. Now excuse me, I've got to go burn one.
Why should he be embarrassed Joe lol!
lol
Husband used to put them in his hat band...came home one hot day-took the hat off-and there was a roach stuck to his forehead.
Legalize marijuana and this kind of thing won't have to be in the news any more. The people who want to keep pot criminalized are probably using it anyway, and may even be facilitating the smuggling of large quantities into this country for a cut of the profits...just as long as they get theirs under the table and free.
Yeahhhhhhh mathuin, and I bet his wife was getting a cut of the weed profits and why she had to apologise. That damn nucklehead husband.
That's the guy I'd hire if I needed a REAL lawyer.. not some fake scum bag who pretends to agree and have pitty but someone who knows from experience how bad the law is for everyone.. Even though 70% of Americans feel it should be legal for medical and over 50% think it should be legal for recreation the corrupt cartel controlled government keeps these 1930's prohibition laws on the books so they can make money off prosecution.. We need a new law that makes pointless laws like this illegal. The cops aren't here for our safety they're here to arrest you and fill a foreign owned privately owned prison here in America.. At the tax payers expense. More prisons are planned.. Stricter laws are proposed and more VICTIMLESS criminals are being sent to harder time than pedophiles, rapists and bank robbers.. It should be a crime to do this to people but morals go out the window when LARGE SUMS OF MONEY are involved.
Even a wife will sell her husband out for the sake of a political career. Sad. Wanna balance the budget? Cut military spending and decriminalize the ganja. Sobriety is best, but I'd rather have people stoned than drunk. Alcohol is evil.
LOL !!!!!! what a maroon.
Hey, no biggie, I snagged a Bud Kinger from a Liquor store I worked for when I was 18 and it fell out of my pocket in front of my very strict, law abiding, rule enforcing boss. Busted. At least he didn't have me arrested. But I liked that job. I was drinking pretty much non-stop in the cooler on my own, I just got greedy.
If it were legal we wouldn't be reading this story.
One time, I was in the driver's license office renewing my license. There had been a couple of guys ahead of me, and when I sat down, I saw what appeared to be a small piece of cellophane trash on the floor. So, being a neatnik, I picked it up, stuck it in my pocket to throw away later, and continued talking to the driver's license examiner. Later, when I pulled it out of my pocket, it turned out to be a bud of the most excellant weed wrapped in a cigarette cellophane. My day was suddenly significantly improved.
I'm surprised he didn't just say it was one of his clients' weed...pretty sure I would have!
In the courtroom? C'mon man!
Don't stop there were is the judge stash, don't stop there DA, don't stop there Bailiff, don't there stenographer. Just don't stop!
As if LaToya had never shared a joint with her husband?
In my neck of the woods, I know lawyers, doctors, architects, city planners, etc. that have smoked pot for decades.
Our country needs "professional help" for not legalizing Pot as yet...
Pot is not legal in former slave states like Louisiana.
But automatic weapons capable of killing dozens of people quickly are legal.
These redneck people belong burning in hell with the Nazis.
Ready for a trip into hate land.
No. I'll stay in California where medical marijuana is legal and stupid rednecks are looked down upon.
I don't need to go anywhere near those southern redneck white trash people who hate blacks, hispanics, orientals and jews.
Hey John, I hope the EM who picks you up in a wreck and the emergency room physician smokes pot. I hope the teachers of you kids smoke pot. I hope the g.. d n officer that comes to investigate your house after a burglary by druggies smokes pot. I hope the pilot of your next light smokes pot. H... let everyone smoke pot, not just the low-life, bottom feeders who do nothing for society.
those rednecks down south have been fighting prohibition of various forms for at least a couple centuries now mr. penn. i find it extremely funny that you claim to hate rednecks who hate blacks, hispanics, orientals and jews. you are basically admitting to doing the exact same thing you claim to despise. how long have you been traipsing about the countryside without coming to this obvious realization? it would seem to me that you and the rednecks you speak of are not all that different, maybe you see a little bit of yourself reflected back from the glare of their red necks.
HIS WIFE SAYS..........I hope that this incident will encourage Jason to seek the professional help.”....or a medical marij. card. Geez, she makes him sound like a child abuser or something evil. I guess our founding fathers who grew hemp are evil too. Did you know people used to pay taxes with weed. Can you imagine going back in time and walking with george washington through his pot fields? then tell him, ya, were going to have a political party that wants to grow government to the point this weed you used for fuel, cloth, oil, sails, etc will someday be illegal george. What would surprise him most? the size of governmet and its mindset (especailly with socialist nobama) or the fact the plant that helped the economy and win the war for independence is now illegal?
Yeah, with a wife like that, who needs enemies? She most certainly ID throw her husband under the bus. She obviously loves her CAREER unconditionally, not her husband. FACT: The marijuana laws in this country are an abysmal failure. For this incident to even make the news is evidence of that. Mr. Cantrell undoubtedly will lose his position as Assistant City Attorney over this....all because of an outdated and absurd set of 75-year old laws that should NEVER have been enacted in the first place, and certainly should have long been overturned. LEGALIZE now, Please, and issue Mr. Cantrell an apology. (And get his idiot wife into counseling!)
gee, i never knew the country was so tolerant of pot smoking. i agree, legalize herb and get it over with, besides i know a few uptight cranky farts that should be required to get high a couple time a week.
LoL, his wife says, "I hope that this incident will encourage Jason to seek the professional help.” What a piece of work she is. 1st, she didn't know he smokes pot? Yeah right. 2nd she lies. 3rd It'shypocritical to bust someone when you only give them a citation.
I have been against legalizing pot, but give me a break. Either make it illegal or stop wasting taxpayer money busting people by people who use pot. Let those who want to smoke it pay a tax and stop being hypocrites.
There has been many of the professionals you mentioned probrably smoking pot for years they just don't get caught besides if your in one of those professions and you do get caught you get a slap on the wrists like this guy its just the average middle class joe that has to pay for the rich and the poor to get high, eat, get healthcare, just like everything else the least they could let us do is get high for working for the rich and supporting the poor!
I don't generally read comments or even leave them, but I must say it warms my heart to see so many open minded, educated people talking about this subject. It gives me hope for the future.