Tuesday, March 20, 2012

WATCH YOUR MOUTH! PSEUDONYM'S COMMENTS HURT (NOW FORMER) FEDERAL PROSECUTOR

New Orelans Federal Prosecutor Sal Perricone has admitted to making hundreds of posts under pseudonym Henry L. Mencken1951 and possibly three others on the website NOLA.com.  In these posts, Mencken1951 complained that U.S. Attorney Jim Letten was "great for taking credit for other people's hard work.  It is the assistants and agents who do the work and should be congratulated."  Mencken 1951 also claimed that a U.S. District Judge "loves killers."  He even called President Obama's Cabinet the "West Wing of Bolsheviks."

Perricone was discovered after a forensic linguistics expert, hired by a landfill owner who is the subject of a probe by U.S. Attorney's Office, examined the nearly 600 posts by Mencken1951 and a brief written by Perricone.  The expert tied Perricone and Mencken1951 together due to the use of alliteration and antiquated words, i.e., "dubiety" and "redoubt." 

U.S. Attorney Lim Letten has stated that Perricone has been removed from all matters on which he commented on at NOLA.com.  Perricone's actions have been referred to Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility.  Perricone has since resigned from the Department of Justice. He likely will be charged with breaching the DOJ Policy on disclosing non-public information without permission. 

Perricone, 60, was a federal prosecutor for nearly20 years.  Previously, he was an FBI agent, a New Orleans police officer and a Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputy. At the time of these comments, he held the post of senior litigation counsel, generally considered the No. 3 job in the office.

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