Posted on January 30, 2009

DA Intern Booted After Arrest

Laurel J. Sweet, Boston Herald, January 29, 2009

A promising Harvard Law School standout told cops during a bizarre drunken tirade that he would “lie and cheat” to ruin them if–as a future attorney–he ever calls them to a witness stand, police said.

A statement like that really has no place in the practice of law,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, who took Charles Claudio Simpkins on last fall as an intern and will now prosecute him on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

A police report states that Simpkins, 24, made the threat early Saturday morning, just four months from graduation, as he spilled out of a Theater District bar and into the back of a Boston police cruiser, barking to officers, “Give me a (expletive) ride, I work for the district attorney’s office.”

Wark confirmed Simpkins has been booted from his unpaid position assisting prosecutors in Dorchester District Court, for which Harvard hand-picked him.

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Police claim that after he was arrested, Simpkins said, “Dan Conley is a (expletive), but he’ll get you (expletives).”

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A proud conservative, Simpkins seemed destined for a future of unlimited potential.

A graduate of City College of New York, where he majored in philosophy and political science, Simpkins was in 2005 named a Harry S. Truman Scholar for his devotion to public service. He has studied abroad and appeared on several major networks, as well as on YouTube.com, discussing politics.

In a post in September, one political blogger said Simpkins “is what Obama could have been.”

A former CCNY classmate gushed online, “Like Barack, Claudio is also . . . politically active, handsome, and has more honors than I can count.”

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