Federal prosecutors allege Richard Luthmann, a politically active Staten Island lawyer, is so dangerous he should remain locked up as he awaits trial on fraud, kidnapping and extortion charges. Some friends say they were blindsided by the accusations and are struggling to make sense of it all. Borough reporter Amanda Farinacci has the story.

Bow-tie wearing lawyer Richard Luthmann has long been known as a colorful, if combative gadfly, on Staten Island.

He ran for office and lost, but fought the city and won,  preventing cancellation of Wagner High's football season after an alleged hazing incident.

He once famously sought to settle a beef with a "trial by combat."

"A very intelligent attorney," said state reform party Secretary Frank Morano. "But also someone that had a flair for being eccentric, had a flair for theatrics. Loved media coverage; the more outlandish, the better."

But an 11-count federal indictment last week charging Luthmann with kidnapping, fraud and extortion paints a sinister picture.

Accusing him of defrauding companies buying scrap metal by sending them filler material instead. And alleging he set up an associate to be threatened at gunpoint over a debt, crimes his attorney denies.

In a separate memo, prosecutors even argue he is too "vicious and dangerous" to allow out on bail. Alleging, for example, he once tried to hire someone to kill Kevin Elkins, then a Democratic Party official, although he was never charged.

Some friends say they are at a loss.

"The sort of things that are being alleged in this indictment are reprehensible," said Morano. "And I would never have had an inkling that the fellow that I was friends with would ever have been a party to anything that he's being accused of."

A skilled election lawyer, Luthmann counts politicians as friends.

In August, after NY1 reported he created Facebook pages meant to mislead voters.  Assemblyman Ron Castorina, the borough's Republican Party chairman, defended him.

The pair became friends through the local Kiwanis Club. Luthmann was its president.

"He has helped save babies from getting tetanus in third world countries," Castorina said. "He's done a lot of good; he's been very magnanimous and generous."

Still, Facebook conversations obtained by NY1 contrast with that do-gooder image.

In this exchange with a Donald Trump supporter last year, Luthmann sent images of crayon drawings that appear to be of Trump, and the words "expletive the Mexicans" and "expletive the Jews."

But all his past controversies pale in comparison to what he faces now.

If convicted on all charges, Luthmann faces a top penalty of life in prison.