Ohio Supreme Court suspends attorney for flinging ‘feces-filled Pringles can’ from his car

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) — Jack Blakeslee, a criminal defense attorney from Caldwell, Ohio, was punished Wednesday by the state's high court for tossing a Pringles can filled with his own feces in the parking lot of a victim advocacy center and "failing to control his own bizarre impulses."

The attorney defecated into an empty Pringles can on the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, and then left his home to attend a pretrial hearing for his client, a defendant in a capital murder case.

He drove past the Haven of Hope victim advocacy center in Cambridge near the Guernsey County Courthouse and was captured on surveillance cameras throwing the can into the center's parking lot.

One of the center's employees, Carpenter Wilkinson, saw Blakeslee throw the can from his car and recovered it in the parking lot before she attended the hearing for Blakeslee's client.

Wilkinson, who knew Blakeslee and had worked with him professionally, called police to report the incident and the attorney was eventually charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and littering.

Blakeslee pleaded guilty to both charges and paid $248 in fines and court costs.

Licensed in the Buckeye State for nearly half a century, Blakeslee admitted during disciplinary proceedings he had engaged in similar behavior at least 10 other times in 2021 alone, but denied targeting the advocacy center.

"He explained during his deposition and hearing testimony that he threw the feces-filled cans to 'blow off steam' and that he 'got a kick out of it,' imagining the 'look of surprise' on peoples' faces when they would find them," the justices wrote in their majority opinion.

"Blakeslee has described his misconduct as a 'prank' and admitted that it was 'stupid,'" the justices continued in the opinion. "He also acknowledged that he was embarrassed by the public revelation of his misconduct and the resulting media attention."

The court found that the admission of repeated poop-throwing by Blakeslee established a pattern of misconduct that required a suspension, even though the Board of Professional Conduct recommended a public sanction.

"The evidence in this case shows that despite societal standards of cleanliness and decorum, Blakeslee failed to control his own bizarre impulses to place feces-filled cans out in public for unsuspecting people to find," they wrote in the opinion. "His aberrant conduct has adversely reflected on his own fitness to practice law and brought discredit to the profession through significant media attention."

The justices were skeptical of Blakeslee's denial that he targeted the advocacy center and mentioned he had worked with Wilkinson for nearly 20 years, while also theorizing the stunt was an escalation "to seek an even greater thrill by pulling his prank on someone he knew."

The court ultimately concluded the attorney did not intend to intimidate Wilkinson or any other employees at Haven of Hope, and stayed six months of the suspension, provided Blakeslee displays no further misconduct.

Justice Patrick Fischer dissented from the majority in part and recommended a fully stayed, two-year suspension, along with two years of probation.

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