One For The Books

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended an attorney for six months without automatic reinstatement. The attorney was the elected county prosecutor for Crawford County. While in office, he used county funds to purchase a new set of West's Indiana Code for his office and donated his personal set to the county public library. When he was defeated for reelection, he took the new Code with him, leaving the prosecutor's office code-less.

The attorney also had falsely stated that he had donated the new Code to the library. He subsequently reimbursed the county. The court indicated that the discipline might well have been more severe if the matter had been submitted without an agreement between the parties: "...in light of the Court's desire to foster agreed resolutions of lawyer discipline cases, the Court now APPROVES and ORDERS the agreed discipline." (Mike Frisch)