Judge, Set to Aid Claiborne Appeal, Dies in Hotel

A Las Vegas judge, who accompanied federal Judge Harry Claiborne here to lend support to Claiborne’s effort to have his tax evasion conviction overturned, was found dead Tuesday in a hotel bathtub.

Nevada District Judge Thomas O’Donnell, 59, died of an apparent heart attack in his room at the Hilton Hotel. O’Donnell, who spent 18 years on the state trial bench in Las Vegas, had a history of four heart attacks, the most recent one in February.

After his friend failed to show up for an 8:30 a.m. breakfast date, Claiborne called hotel security. The guards and Claiborne discovered O’Donnell’s body and called police.

Claiborne came to San Francisco for a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hearing in which his lawyers are seeking to overturn Claiborne’s conviction, claiming improper actions by the trial court and prosecutors.

Convicted Last August

Claiborne, 67, was convicted by a jury last August of two counts of failing to report $106,000 in income that he received in legal fees while he was a defense attorney. The only federal judge ever convicted of a felony while on the bench, he was sentenced last October to two years in prison.

Claiborne still receives his $73,000-a-year judge’s salary, though he no longer hears cases. He can only be removed from office through impeachment by Congress.

“He was not treated as an average suspect,” Claiborne’s lead attorney, Oscar Goodman, told the three-judge appeals panel Tuesday. “Special rules were developed in the targeting and the getting of Judge Claiborne.”

The case is being heard by Judges Wilbur F. Pell of Chicago, Edward Lumbard of New York and Robert H. McWilliams of Denver.

Claiborne did not attend the hearing because of the death of his friend. Goodman said of O’Donnell: “He was bright, he was articulate and he was a loyal friend.”