A little-watched race for a Jefferson Parish judgeship turned into a dogfight this week after a candidate accused his opponent of exaggerating his ties to an infamous disbarred lawyer convicted in a headline-grabbing fraud scheme.
To hear judicial candidate Sal Brocato tell it, Brocato clerked for the now-disbarred lawyer, Sean Alfortish, for a few years after law school, occasionally taking cases as Alfortish’s co-counsel. At the time, Alfortish was a Kenner city judge and successful injury attorney.
Fast forward 27 years and Alfortish is in jail after a New Orleans federal jury convicted him of fraud in September. The jury found he orchestrated hundreds of wrecks with big-rig trucks, flooding New Orleans’ civil courts with bogus lawsuits filed for years by his fiancé, Vanessa Motta…