Former celebrity attorney Dominic Barbara has been arrested for the second time in three months, this time charged with harassing, stalking and trying to extort $200,000 from one of his ex-wives, the Nassau district attorney's office said Tuesday morning.
Barbara, 67, was arrested Tuesday morning by investigators from the office. He is charged with fourth-degree attempted grand larceny, two counts of second-degree aggravated harassment and two counts of fourth-degree stalking, all misdemeanors, prosecutors said.
If convicted, Barbara faces up to a year in jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in First District Court in Hempstead.
From March 2012 to September 2012, prosecutors said, Barbara texted and called his most recent ex-wife, Leslie, numerous times asking for $10,000. When she refused, prosecutors said he began a campaign of threatening calls and texts designed to destroy her reputation and career. that continued long after he was told to stop.
In the calls and texts, Barbara threatened to expose details of sexual relationships, disclose compromising photos and videos, and hold a press conference about the men he claimed she had slept with, prosecutors said. Later, they said, he increased his demand to $200,000.
"This was a cold-hearted campaign of harassment and threats designed to put money in the defendant's pockets, and he didn't care how many lives were destroyed along the way," Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. "Mr. Barbara's conduct indicates a complete lack of respect for the people he maligned, the rule of law, and common decency."
Barbara was arrested in a separate case on Sept. 5, and charged with violating an order of protection by attempting to contact his ex-wife through a third party. The order was filed in late August 2012.
In recent years, Barbara's law license has been suspended and he lost his once opulent lifestyle. He has said he hopes to make a comeback by marketing a diet pill he says he helped formulate.


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