NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Scores of New Orleanians were unjustly imprisoned when the criminal justice system collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, but Abdulrahman Zeitoun's wrongful arrest was undoubtedly one of the most celebrated. His post-Katrina plight was the focus of the 2009 book "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers, one of the most well-received chronicles of the storm.
On Monday, Zeitoun again wore a jail uniform as he sat on a courtroom bench surrounded by other inmates. But this time, Zeitoun's appearance at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court reflected the profoundly troubling turn his life has taken of late, which has seen him arrested twice on charges of assaulting his ex-wife. The Zeitouns' loving relationship formed the backbone of Eggers' story.
The most recent arrest occurred on July 25, when Zeitoun allegedly struck Kathy Zeitoun with his fists and a tire iron and attempted to choke her outside a lawyer's office near the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Prytania Street. Zeitoun was on probation for attacking Kathy Zeitoun, his then-wife, in front of their children at one of their Dart Street properties in March 2011. Last summer, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of negligent injuring in that assault and was sentenced to anger-management classes.
Magistrate Judge Gerard Hansen decided Monday morning not to revoke Zeitoun's probation because of the new arrest, saying the 54-year-old man should have been released from supervision after the successful completion of the treatment program. Hansen's decision means Zeitoun can leave jail if he posts a $150,000 bond for the latest attack.
After the hearing, a shaken Kathy Zeitoun said she had wanted her ex-husband to remain locked up without the possibility of bail. "He tried to kill me," she said, wondering aloud how he could have complied with his probation when she has had to call the police about him in recent month. She has also filed requests for protective orders with the Orleans Parish civil court, claiming that Abdulrahman Zeitoun has attacked the couple's children.
Outside the courtroom, Kathy Zeitoun, 41, showed a reporter photographs of bruises, scrapes and marks on her body, which she says she received in the July beating. She said her ex-husband also struck her windshield with the tire iron, producing a picture of the busted glass.
A short police gist filed into the court record notes the responding NOPD officer saw lacerations on Kathy Zeitoun and took written statements from several people about the incident.
J.C. Lawrence, an attorney for Abdulrahman Zeitoun, declined to comment for this story. Another lawyer filed a motion in civil court earlier this year arguing Kathy Zeitoun filed requests for protective orders so she would not have to comply with court-ordered child visitation for her ex-husband.
Eggers' 2009 book about Abdulrahman Zeitoun, known around the city for his eponymous house-painting business, tells the story of Zeitoun's time in the city, helping people in his flooded neighborhood until he and friends were inexplicably detained by a group of soldiers. Zeitoun was not the only person falsely arrested after Katrina -- perhaps the most famous is Lance Madison, who was booked with shooting at police on the Danziger Bridge -- but parts of the book suggest his group was detained because some of them were Middle Eastern. One soldier at the makeshift jail at the Greyhound bus station where they were held is quoted as saying the men were members of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization.
However, interviews with the arresting officers at the end of the book indicate they arrested the men because they suspected them of looting, leading Eggers to the conclusion that the arrests were a product of "systemic ignorance and malfunction" as opposed to ethnic profiling.
Along with detailing Zeitoun's time at "Camp Greyhound" and his longer stay at a state prison, the book portrays his stable marriage to Kathy and delves into her panic when she lost track of him after the storm. Kathy Zeitoun had evacuated with the couple's children, and she had been touching base with her husband by phone until his arrest.
The award-winning book also chronicled Abdulrahman Zeitoun's youth in Syria and Kathy Zeitoun's conversion to Islam.
The book's publication led to the creation of the Zeitoun Foundation, to which Eggers donated his share of the book sales. According to an email from Eggers' assistant, the foundation has distributed more than $250,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations in New Orleans and "building interfaith understanding." Kathy Zeitoun said the Zeitouns are not involved in the foundation.
A website for the foundation notes the book has been selected for various university and city reading programs. A section of the site about the Zeitouns does not mention Abdulrahman Zeitoun's domestic-violence arrests or the couple's divorce earlier this year. The March 2011 arrest was first reported by the "Smoking Gun" website in January.
An assistant to Eggers said she could not reach him Monday.
Kathy Zeitoun said she considers Eggers' book a faithful and accurate portrait of the couple's shared ordeal during Katrina. But she believes she must publicly shed light on her ex-husband's violent side, which she says has emerged in recent years. "I'm not going to be quiet about it anymore because being quiet puts him in a position to do it again," she said.
Kathy Zeitoun offered several possible reasons for her husband's changed behavior, including his adoption of a "radical" religious philosophy that she emphasized does not reflect true Muslim beliefs. She also questioned whether his imprisonment could have changed him.
"They took his control away; he took mine and my children's," she said.