Photo Via: khou.com
Story Via: Click2houston.com
HOUSTON — Prominent Houston attorney John O’Quinn was killed in a single-vehicle crash on Thursday.
Houston police said a Chevrolet Suburban jumped the curbs on Allen Parkway near Montrose Boulevard at about 8:15 a.m. It then slammed into a tree.
O’Quinn, 68, and another person inside the vehicle died at the scene. Police have not said if O’Quinn was the driver or the passenger.
Investigators are trying to figure out what caused the wreck.
“Certainly the roads being slick possibly had something to do with it,” Lt. L.J. Satterwhite said. “We don’t know if speed was involved. It’s a very preliminary investigation. We’re going to take some time to see exactly what happened.”
O’Quinn, a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, went over a decade without losing a case and made billions in the Texas tobacco settlement. He also played a prominent role for his exploits in asbestos, tobacco, silicone implants and fen-phen cases.
He also was prosecuted by the State Bar of Texas for how he obtained cases and found in contempt midtrial for sleeping in a jury room.
According to his law firm’s Web site, O’Quinn was named one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal, one of the 100 Legal Legends of Texas by Texas Lawyer and one of the Five Best Texas Trial Lawyers of the Past Century by the Houston Chronicle.
O’Quinn was an avid car collector who once paid $690,000 for a light blue 1975 Ford Escort GL once owned by Pope John Paul II. His collection also included hot rods, a Bat mobile and a limo from President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade.
He once lost $1.3 million when he put his collection in the hands of an ex-con, Zev Isgur, to take care of the collection and make it bigger. O’Quinn told him to find impressive cars anywhere in the world, then O’Quinn would approve the purchases and cut checks for any amount that Isgur would ask for. O’Quinn became suspicious of Isgur’s lavish lifestyle and discovered he was three dozen cars short. Police said they had never been purchased and found $800,000 of the money with Isgur’s girlfriend, who was a stripper.
