When Baton Rouge-based H&O Investments officially backed out of a contract to remove four Confederate monuments from New Orleans last week due to death threats, company owner David Mahler figured the controversy was behind him, says his attorney, Roy Maughan Jr.
But Mahler today found his new Lamborghini torched outside of his business at 17425 Opportunity Ave., which is just off Airline Highway south of the Highland Road intersection. The vehicle was purchased just a few months ago and is worth in excess of $200,000, says Maughan.
Maughan stresses the investigation remains ongoing, and at this point there’s no way to be certain the incinerated luxury car and controversy surrounding the Confederate monuments are related.
“At this point there hasn’t been any finding as to the cause or origin of the fire, and the investigation is ongoing,” he says. “There is a tendency to jump to conclusions because it’s easy, but nobody left a note and nobody has claimed credit. But given the fact that there were death threats last week and such public outrage about the monuments in general, there’s natural questions about the relationship of these events.”
As first reported by Daily Report on Thursday, Maughan submitted a letter to New Orleans officials last week notifying them H&O was backing out of its contract due to numerous death threats. Maughan says those threats had ceased in the days leading up to this morning’s car fire.
“We pretty much thought the controversy was behind us,” he says. “So this was kind of a surprise.”
Maughan says it appears the vehicle fire began around 1 or 2 a.m., adding that by the time it was discovered and firefighters responded to the scene the car was a total loss.
Mahler and a business partner launched Elite Concierge last fall. The company provides luxury vehicle rentals from the Baton Rouge and New Orleans airports. Maughan says the Lamborghini was not part of the company’s fleet and was Mahler’s personal vehicle.
In December, the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 to remove statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard, as well as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and a monument honoring the Battle of Liberty Place.
H&O’s decision to pull out of the job comes as a group of preservation organizations opposing the monuments’ removal goes to federal court to try to stop the city from taking them down. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier heard the pleas of lawyers for preservationists and a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans seeking to halt the city from moving ahead with plans to take down statues of Confederate leaders. Barbier made no decision, but said he would issue a ruling soon.
Maughan says he hopes his client’s torched car—if found to be connected to the monument controversy—is not a sign of more incidents to come following Barbier’s ruling.
“People are obviously very sensitive about this issue, and my real hope is that this isn’t a precursor of something else to come,” he says. “Because when there is a ruling there are going to be some unhappy folks on one side or the other, and you hope this isn’t a demonstration of what extreme they make take their opinions.”
—Steve Sanoski
