Attorney Fails to Report Minestrone Soup Murder Plot, Gets Sued

By Casey C. Sullivan, Esq. on September 24, 2015 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

It was a case of attempted murder by soup and the attorney knew all along. That's the gist of a new lawsuit against Bowling Green, Kentucky, lawyer John Deeb. According to Dewayne Reid, his wife tried to poison him with her minestrone soup. It wasn't just her poor cooking skills that would have done him in, either. The minestrone was also flavored with a few handfuls of Lorcet and Xanax.

Reid alleges that Deeb knew about the plan a week in advance and not only failed to take any action, but discouraged others from reporting the soupsicious plot.

An Olive Garden Murder Mystery

Neither Reid nor his wife Judy were Deeb's clients. Rather, Deeb was working with Ashley Scott, a participant in a drug court program that was supervised by the allegedly homicidal Judy Reid. According to the lawsuit, Judy wasn't just Scott's drug court supervisor, she was also her lover, the Bowling Green Daily News reports. She was also an accomplice to murder, as well, as Judy asked her to obtain drugs for the plot. Scott refused and informed Deeb, her lawyer, all about the planned murder -- or at least that's what Dewayne Reid alleges.

Exactly how was the plan to go down? The drugs were to be mixed in with minestrone purchased from Oliver Garden. That's right, Judy Reid wasn't even going to cook the murderous soup herself.

The Case Against the Attorney

Dewayne Reid survived the plot -- his wife and another accomplice are awaiting trial for attempted murder -- and is now seeking civil justice from Deeb. According to the suit, when Scott told Deeb about the murder, he not only didn't contact the authorities, he "advised Scott not to come forward with information about the plot, as she would be removed from the drug court program and no one would believe her anyway."

In Kentucky, like in most states, rules of professional conduct do not require lawyers to report potential crimes. Rather, a lawyer may chose to reveal confidential client information only when the lawyer believes it's reasonably necessary to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm.

But Reid isn't filing an ethics complaint against Deeb; he's suing him for negligence. "If you find out somebody is going to be killed by another person ... it might be a good idea to let the police know," Reid's lawyer Gary Logsdon told the Daily News. "As an office of the court and a member of the bar, I think you would have a duty [to do so]."

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