He’s back. He’s svelte. He’s a born-again Christian.
Has Dominic Barbara really changed?
Barbara sails into the office, dog-eared Bible in one hand and alligator briefcase in the other, in a suit that hangs precariously from his dwindling body. He said he’s down to 205 pounds, from his all-time high of 330.
So, how did he lose the weight?
“Jesus,” he told me as if divulging a minor miracle.
This is Dominic Barbara?
The lawyer and Howard Stern regular has represented every criminal and crazy to tread Long Island, from Joey Buttafuoco to Michael Lohan to the clan of Diane Schuler, who was high as a kite when she drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway in 2009, killing herself and seven innocents.
Barbara was the carnival barker who, at his zenith, employed 30 associates. Then last year, he was suspended from the bar for 18 months by a state panel alarmed by the “avalanche” of complaints against him, including his failure to return thousands of dollars of a client’s money.
In short order, he lost five houses and a pair of Bentleys, got hooked on Vicodin, and tried to commit suicide. Twice.
The second time, he tried to jump off the balcony of a rented Florida apartment, but was too fat to fit over the rail.
Then he found God. Or so he said.
“I never cheated anyone,” he swore. “I just wanted publicity. I was crazy. There was almost a comical air about me.”
Within minutes, though, Barbara drops names of the freaks and geeks he knows. There’s Donald Trump, whom he says he grew up with. And Alec Baldwin, the kindred egomaniac who once tried to hire him.
“Look,” he said, pulling a wad of bills from his pocket. “I have $1,700 to my name!
“When I go shopping, I clip coupons! There’s something pure about being poor.”
So what does Dominic Barbara want?
He’s coming off suspension on Aug. 1, although he doesn’t know if he’ll practice law again.
“I’m studying to be a minister” in the Assemblies of God church, the lifelong Roman Catholic told me.
“I want to be redeemed, and you’re a part of it.” Glad to help.
But critics aren’t so sure. One who’s dealt with the man warned me of a con.
“If Dominic says it’s raining,” he said, “put your hand out and check.”
As Barbara tells it, he once owned houses in Puerto Rico, Florida, two on Long Island — one a 15,000-square-foot spread he said the late Donna Summer tried to buy — and a Manhattan apartment.
Now he lives in a 900-square-foot, $1,300-a-month rental in Sunny Isles, Fla., and drives a 7-year-old Mercedes. Barbara, 66, meets expenses with Social Security checks and help from his sister.
Barbara described getting booted from the bar as setting him on the road to ruin.
Or maybe it was the drugs.
He had knee surgery, he explained, and a doctor prescribed Vicodin.
“I never did drugs or drank,” he said. “Not even wine, and I’m Italian! Pretty soon, I was taking 170 pills a month, prescribed by unnamed doctors, and drinking.”
He tried to kill himself with an overdose two weeks before his January 2011 suspension, but lived.
After driving all night to Florida, he tried and failed again at suicide. Then he saw his mother, dead 20 years, crying.
It took octogenarian minister Bonnie Wilkerson to set him straight.
Visiting her church, he suddenly started crying, remembering being abused as a child by a relative.
The riveting tale had me going. “I brought you a nice story, didn’t I?” he asked. But, I wonder, what’s the angle?
“HBO wants to do a documentary on my life. It’s going to be a lot of money,” he boasted. Actually, he’s said he’s been approached by an independent producer for rights to his life’s story, but gave no details. He’s also involved in creating a vitamin, Enhance, which helps people lose weight.
Barbara is on the comeback trail, if he stays out of trouble. His first goal, he said, is “putting the chairman of the board who makes Vicodin in prison for life. I don’t want to kill him. because I’m a Christian.”
I love a nice tale of sin and redemption. Let’s see if this one plays out.
Enough with the tsk-tsking on frisking
In this city, thugs have powerful help getting away with crime.
A teen who was stopped and frisked by an alert Bronx cop while carrying a loaded gun in 2010 had his Family Court weapons possession rap tossed last week by the state Appellate Division, which ruled that the frisk was unnecessary and wrong. Ha!
The 14-year-old offender, Darryl Craig, soon got hold of another weapon and shot a man, twice, The Post’s Larry Celona reported. He was moving in for the kill, cops say, when his victim’s children screamed.
Craig was charged with attempted murder.
Then, another judge granted Craig youthful-offender status and sealed the case.
The intense opposition to stop-and-frisk puts us all at risk. And judges, fond of coddling violent offenders, won’t see it.
This has to stop.
Our lives depend on it.
Viewers favor curry
Goodbye, “Today.’’ Hello, “Good Morning America.’’
The “Today’’ show threw Ann Curry under the bus last week, blaming the ousted anchor for the ratings advance of rival morning chatfest GMA. Curry’s been moved to other duties at NBC, but many loyal viewers won’t notice. They’re changing the dial.
“After being a regular viewer of Today for over 40 years I will now be switching to GMA,’’ one wrote on a brimming Facebook page.
“ANN, you’re one special lady! The Today show should be ashamed,’’ wrote another.
NBC could have given Ann a nice send-off on her last day. Instead, she cried pitiably on live TV, angering viewers. Way to go.
Katie’s $15M mission possible
Katie Holmes could net a cool $15 million in her divorce from Tom Cruise after cashing in a prenup that reportedly gives her $3 million for each year of their sham marriage.
She also gets a California mansion.
Oh, and she wants sole custody of the couple’s daughter, Suri (right).
This is divorce, Hollywood-style. Katie is said to be worried that Suri will grow up a Scientologist. But didn’t she know when she married Tom that the church would always dominate their lives?
I feel sorry for Suri, doomed to grow up in a broken home.
Lowest of the loathed
Casey Anthony, move over. The most hated human in America might be John Edwards-stealer Rielle Hunter.
Hunter slammed her lover’s late wife Elizabeth as a “witch on wheels’’ in her new tell-all book, but couldn’t attract enough females to beat infomercials or NBC for her much-hyped chat on ABC. Viewers loathe her.
Now, she’s announced that she and “Johnny’’ have split. Even he’s got taste.