A routine day in Washington, D.C. Superior Court became a surprise Harvard Law School reunion this spring--between a judge appointed by the president and a man who spends his days on the street.

In April, a scruffy, bearded Alfred Postell stood before Judge Thomas Motley on charges of unlawful entry. 'I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979,' Postell responded as his rights were read during the arraignment.

'Mr. Postell, so did I...I remember you,' came Motley's reply. The two men were classmates at one of America's top law schools alongside U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and and former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold.

Far to fall: Alfred Postell already held degrees in both economics and accounting when he graduated from Harvard Law in 1979 but a psychotic break a few years into his career at a prestigious firm led to a life spent mostly on the streets

Far to fall: Alfred Postell already held degrees in both economics and accounting when he graduated from Harvard Law in 1979 but a psychotic break a few years into his career at a prestigious firm led to a life spent mostly on the streets

In April, a scruffy, bearded Alfred Postell stood before Judge Thomas Motley on charges of unlawful entry. 'I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979,' Postell responded as his rights were read during the arraignment. Motley then said, 'So did I...I remember you'

In April, a scruffy, bearded Alfred Postell stood before Judge Thomas Motley on charges of unlawful entry. 'I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979,' Postell responded as his rights were read during the arraignment. Motley then said, 'So did I...I remember you'

But, as the Washington Post reports, Judge Motley was the one who'd remained on the professional track. And as such, he had a job to do.

'But I have no choice in the matter,' Motley said before ordering his classmate back into jail.

Postell, now a diagnosed schizophrenic, was once an attorney at a high-powered D.C. firm who, before law school, had earned degrees in both accounting and economics.

Like Judge Motley, their classmate Piper Kent-Marshall remembers the soft-spoken, well-dressed Postell well.

'He worked extremely hard and was extremely disciplined,' Kent-Marshall told the Post. 'It is an incredibly tragic and sad story...because in law school, he was one of the top students and a very, very, very bright and charming man.'

The exact circumstances of Postell's fall are unclear. 

What's known is that several years into his time doing tax law for Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge, the firm let him go.

Postell once had a promising future but now spends his days on the streets and in a McDonald's

Postell once had a promising future but now spends his days on the streets and in a McDonald's. Among his fellow 1979 Harvard Law School graduates was U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

'He had all of these fancy things, a nice boat that he used to sail all over the place,' his relative LaTonya Sellers Postell recalled. 

'He was living the rich life. Then he just all of a sudden, he bugged out. No one knows exactly why it happened...He lost all of his material things. It's been crazy. Absolutely crazy.'

Starting sometime in the mid 1980s, Postell began living out of a family pastor's home in Northeast D.C.

Hi bewildered mother, Ruth Priest, now 85, could no longer take care of her son. And she still can't explain what happened.

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For the past 30 years, he's spent days wandering the street, hanging out in front of stores and in McDonald's. 

A local charity is trying to help Postell by finding him services and his mother has managed to scrape money together she hopes will help get him off the streets. 

But Postell still remembers life before his dirty clothes, white beard and addled mind.

'You get into a firm, it's prestigious,' Postell said when the Post caught up with him recently.

'And when you lose that position, it's like suicide. It's all over. It's atrophy. Or as accountants say, it's to be obsolete. You know what that means? Obsolescence. Beyond your useful life. I was beyond my useful life.' 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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