Rose speaks – Celebrity and High Profile Trials

Oh no….no matter what he was in a courtroom, he was loved by someone. So very sorry for his friends and family.

And Rox…hang in there…

Personal feelings about this man should not get in the way of expressing sorrow of his passing to those that loved him. I am going through the same exact thing right now after my best friend of 25 years killed himself yesterday. I spoke to him everyday and saw him frequently and my pain, saddness and anger are immeasuarble right now so I can completely sympathize with those that loved and cared for John O’Quinn. My deepest sympathy to those who loved both men.

There’s a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat from hearing the news. Everything seems so petty now.

Rox, if you can, find a friend who will listen…it’s a hard road…ask for help if you need it…prayers for you and all who loved him.

I am stunned. Simply stunned. My condolences to his family and friends.

Rox, I am so sorry for your lose. I know what it is like to lose your dearest friend.

I heard about this this morning. Sad, very very sad. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and co workers.

Roxy…………..very very sorry to hear about your best freind. My prayers will be with you on this sad day as well.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa091029_wz_oquinndead.264ac2b0d.html

HOUSTON — Two people, including one of Houston’s most prominent attorneys, were killed Thursday morning in a single-vehicle crash on Allen Parkway.

Famed trial lawyer John O’Quinn was traveling westbound on Allen Parkway in a black Chevrolet Suburban with another man around 8:15 a.m. when the crash occurred.

Police at the scene said the SUV lost control, jumped the curb, went airborne and crashed into a tree on the eastbound service road.

The tree nearly cut the SUV in half, and both O’Quinn and the other man died at the scene.

“Certainly the roads being slick could have had something to do with it. It’s a very preliminary investigation. It will take some time to figure out exactly what happened,” Lt. L.J. Satterwhite of the Houston Police Department said.

A witness said the SUV appeared to be moving at a high rate of speed when it lost control.

She and a friend rushed to the crash site to help the men, but it was too late.

Investigators had traffic blocked for hours after the accident.

O’Quinn, founder of the O’Quinn Law Firm in Houston, made a name for himself handling plaintiff’s litigation, including lawsuits against breast implant manufacturers and tobacco companies.

More recently, he represented Anna Nicole Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, in a battle over the fate of the body of the late actress.

According to his official law firm bio, O’Quinn has been named one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal and among the five best trial lawyers of the past century by the Houston Chronicle, among other honors.

Thank you Rose and Ken along with the other bloggers who are showing such respect for John. No matter how anyone feels about the “case” he gave back more to the community than he took from it. He will be sorely missed by those who knew him and called him “friend”. Your moderation of statements in this instance is surely professional.

Roxanne, so sorry for the lose of your friend. Stay strong.

My condolences to the family and friends of Johnny Cutliff and John O’Quin.

#31 & 32 — not sure which is worse — the initial, tasteless posts or the ones that followed it. All are disrespectful to Mr. O’Quinn’s memory by being posted following the article.

Video of today’s news conference.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7089962

sorry peace I am in the dark

I saw Race Horse today say on myfox if you listen to the tape loop from earlier today , Race Horse said alot.

Quote from Race Horse ” He had everything in the world that money could buy, He had the fame, He had the fortune, But he was not a happy man for some reason, I don’t know why” end quote.

I hope he has found happiness now, R.I.P. I was truly taken-aback today when I heard that he passed, I do have opinions but I will take them to another blog to not disrespect.

Yes, Liann, that was the interview. Thanks …. it was driving me crazy.

Lawyer killed in crash was both revered and reviled
But friends say John O’Quinn felt trapped by public persona

By MIKE TOLSON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Oct. 29, 2009, 11:20PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6693964.html

In a city celebrated for self-made men and famous lawyers, John Maurice O’Quinn more than held his own. He made a fortune and gave much of it away, courted controversy at every turn, scored dramatic legal victories and suffered embarrassing personal defeats. He was loved and hated in similar measure, hailed as a hero by clients and reviled as a legal terrorist by corporations, though no one could ever deny that his reputation preceded him greatly wherever he went.

O’Quinn, 68, was killed Thursday when the SUV he was driving hit a tree on Allen Parkway, police said. Also killed was an employee of his firm, Johnny Lee Cutliff, who often worked as his assistant.

The manner of O’Quinn’s death was a bitter coda for a man who had spent much of the last decade building one of the world’s great classic car collections and who had previous run-ins with law enforcement concerning his driving. Once known as a fast driver who loved sports cars, he pleaded no contest to driving while intoxicated in 1996 and also faced a trial two years later for evading arrest when an officer tried to stop him for a suspected illegal turn.

O’Quinn, who left behind neither a wife nor children, was a complex man whom only a handful of people claim to know well. The most famous of a collection of talented lawyers who got their education at the fledgling University of Houston law school in the 1960s, he battled large companies, the State Bar of Texas in a disbarment proceeding, an oft-hostile press and numerous former colleagues who complained he cheated them out of money. The biggest fight — with his own demons — occupied him for much of the last decade. Friends said he had turned a corner and had achieved the closest thing to happiness that he had ever known.
Life of little moderation

“He was headed so much in the right direction,” said Gerald Treece, an associate dean of the South Texas College of Law and a friend since college. “That’s what was so ironic about this. I’m not saying he managed it every day — who among us does? — but he was working at it. I think maybe he once thought that happiness was one thing and then he found out it was another.”

Treece said O’Quinn’s relationship with Darla Lexington, who oversees the corporation in charge of his automobile collection that numbers more than 800 vehicles, also helped provide a steadying influence in his life and more balance than he had ever known.

Even a cursory appreciation of O’Quinn’s life finds little in the way of moderation, in deed or opinion. To tort reformers, he was an iconic villain who used his Marlboro-man looks, courtroom acumen and the machinery of mass torts to force settlements where none was deserved. To his clients, he was a fierce advocate. To Democratic politicians, he was a godsend, and to many Houston nonprofit groups, he was a ceaseless supporter.

Of one thing there is little disagreement: O’Quinn was driven to a fault. To make more than just a living. To achieve his definition of justice. To be loved and feared. For much of O’Quinn’s life, friends and close colleagues say, he was trapped by the public persona of Big Bad John that such drive created. They say that privately he was a good and caring person.

Close friend Dale Jefferson, who also was one of his personal lawyers, said O’Quinn’s long struggle with substance abuse both humbled and changed him. A rehab stint at the Menninger Clinic helped him realize he needed a spiritual foundation to make any commitment to sobriety work.

“He marched himself down to the Second Baptist Church, and from that time on, there was a change for the better,” Jefferson said. “You certainly saw a lot more of his charity. … It’s hard to take any solace in a tragedy like this, but the one comfort that can by taken by those who knew him and were close to him is that he had made amends with his maker.”
Modest beginnings

O’Quinn, the son of an auto mechanic and a child of modest circumstance, pulled himself up into the highest echelon of plaintiff attorneys via unquestioned intellect and relentless ambition.

Love him or hate him, O’Quinn made his mark. He scored dozens of big courtroom victories, including landmark verdicts in breast implant and pharmaceutical litigation. He also was chastised in 2005 by a federal judge for pursuing thousands of lawsuits in Texas and Mississippi alleging silicosis, an occupational lung disease. The judge claimed the suits were without merit and the enterprise that produced them fraudulent.

Longtime friend and former UH classmate Jack Rains said that because O’Quinn grew up in humble circumstances, his career and the lucrative paydays that came with it were far more than a livelihood.

“It’s not about money — it’s about keeping score,” Rains said.
No room for children

O’Quinn was born in 1941 and grew up with a stern father and absent mother in a West University Place bungalow. Others have theorized that the absence of a mother had a lasting impact on him, that he never escaped a testosterone-soaked world that valued only winning and oneupsmanship.

O’Quinn had no hobbies until his later years, when he began to build his car collection, as well as a devotion to work that contributed to two failed marriages and the absence of children.

“I think he envies me my two children,” friend and fellow attorney Don Riddle said in 1998, “but he said from the start that he did not want them. … There is no room in his life. There is only room for one thing — the practice of law.”
Roller coaster reputation

By the middle of the 1990s, O’Quinn was named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal, and later was included on its 1994 “Power List” because of winning more than 50 verdicts and 200 settlements of $1 million or more. The next year, Forbes magazine reported he was the No. 2 trial lawyer in income, estimating he had earned $40 million in 1994. Only fellow Houston lawyer Joe Jamail of the $10.5 billion Pennzoil verdict stood in front of him.

For all his wins, many focused on the negative publicity that followed him.

In 1986 came accusations of solicitation in connection with an airplane crash in Newfoundland that claimed the lives of 248 U.S. soldiers. Then came allegations of solicitation involving a network of runners. The grievance filed by the State Bar of Texas against him ended in a public reprimand, probation and community service.

He faced a more serious disbarment years later, and though he survived it his name often was tainted in the court of public opinion. Years ago, friends and allies pointed out that complaints about O’Quinn never come from clients. That changed in 1999 when a group of former breast implant clients complained that he had taken an excessive portion of their settlements to cover expenses. An arbitration panel ruled in 2007 that O’Quinn owed them more than $41 million.

That sounded familiar to lawyers who worked with O’Quinn on cases or referred them to him, who complained that he did not pay them what he had promised. That complaint was balanced by philanthropic commitments — more than $5 million to the Children’s Assessment Center, $1 million to the Houston Area Women’s Center and several donations to UH.

Colleagues on Thursday emphasized O’Quinn’s passion for justice and his compassion for others. They said his legacy will be that part of his wealth that he shared with others, many of whom he did not really know.

“It didn’t always get attention,” said Chris Steed, the firm’s managing partner. “He did it because it was the right thing to do.”