Keeping it weird.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...thouse_gr.html
A photo crasher at courthouse groundbreaking?
By Steven Kreytak | Thursday, September 17, 2009, 12:06 PM
The row of shovel-wielding dignitaries at the groundbreaking for Austin’s new federal courthouse this month included members of Congress, federal judges and others with a hand in planning and funding the $100 million-plus project.
At the end of the row was George Lobb.
It’s not clear how Lobb, a young lawyer who sometimes practices in federal court, got there. But there he was, wearing a gray suit, a hardhat he apparently brought himself and a wide grin for the cameras.
“We had an interloper,” said U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Austin, who said local federal judges were not amused. “It was almost like this Forrest Gump thing.”
“The night after the groundbreaking, I was watching the news and I saw a shot of the group. I was like, ‘What the hell was he doing in there?’” Austin said.
Reached by phone this week and asked how he ended up in the shot, Lobb went silent, then said he would call a reporter back later in the day. He never did, and failed to return a follow-up phone message.
According to the State Bar of Texas, Lobb went to law school at the University of Houston and was licensed to practice law in May 2008. Austin said he has been court-appointed on a handful of criminal cases in federal court. State court records show he has about a dozen clients with pending criminal cases, mostly misdemeanors.
The Sept. 2 groundbreaking was attended by perhaps a couple of hundred people, from Austin City Council members to the police chief to assistant U.S. attorneys. After a series of speeches under a big tent set up on a now-closed section of San Antonio Street next to Republic Square park, the dignitaries moved to the block of land to the west, the site of the future courthouse.
Lobb brought his own shovel to the event, which he had painted orange and white, and at one point asked Austin and other judges to sign it.
When Shala Geer-Smith, a spokeswoman for the General Services Administration who was helping organize the event, spotted Lobb with the shovel, she handed him one of the ceremonial shovels, which were painted gold, Austin said.
“She didn’t know who it was and didn’t want to risk offending him by asking,” Austin said.
When the group lined up for pictures, Lobb took his place to the far right.
“I was annoyed that he did it,” Austin said. “”It’s going to be the photograph that you kind of look back on. … The groundbreaking is kind of the singular event when you recognize all that work you have done getting up to that point.”
This week, Austin alerted the General Services Administration officials that Lobb may have taken a ceremonial shovel from the event. They called Federal Protective Service officials, who apparently have retrieved it, Austin said.
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