Attorney Charged With Confidentiality Violation

The Columbus Dispatch reports that disciplinary charges have been filed against an attorney alleging a violation of the duty of confidentiality by sending e-mails to the (now former) Ohio State football coach:

The Ohio Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel today filed a complaint against Christopher T. Cicero, accusing him of violating attorney-client confidentiality when he sent three e-mails to [former coach Jim]Tressel telling him that players had been given free tattoos in exchange for signed memorabilia.

Cicero, a criminal-defense lawyer, learned of the situation when the owner of the tattoo parlor came to him for legal advice about a federal-drug investigation against him.

Edward Rife, owner of Fine Line Ink on the West Side, met with Cicero twice but never hired him, opting to retain another lawyer to represent him.

And:

This is not the first time Cicero, who played football for Ohio State in the early 1980s, has been in trouble with the legal profession. In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended his law license for misconduct after he told lawyers and others that he was having sex with then-Judge Deborah P. O'Neill, who had appointed Cicero to defend a client in a criminal case.

Cicero ultimately admitted that he had overstated the affair and that it did not start until after O'Neill stepped down from the case.

(Mike Frisch)