Not only is this a crime, it'll still end up being more expensive than an appeal. Although a lot quicker.

Braden Robinson had accused the victim of kidnapping, torturing, and killing one of Robinson's relatives, who had supposedly owned part of the Barq's Root Beer company. After he was, not too surprisingly, "unable to come up with any evidence to back up his outlandish claim," a judge in Orleans Parish dismissed his case last September and ordered him to pay $100,000 (I assume on some sort of a counterclaim). When he heard about this—he'd been excluded from the courtroom for causing disturbances—he drove over to the courthouse and ambushed the defendant with his truck. The defendant was seriously injured, but lived.

Robinson drove away, but showed up later that day at a local hospital with a gun and took someone hostage. He was charged with aggravated assault for that incident, but at some point was set free on bail.

This is just coming up now because Robinson wasn't charged with the hit-and-run until just recently—six months after the fact. Seems like they could have closed that case a little earlier, because the victim told them that Robinson was probably the guy who hit him, Robinson had a motive, and he also got into an armed standoff with police later that same day.

Granted, those probably weren't the only crimes in New Orleans that day, but it doesn't seem too hard to connect those dots, either.