Thursday, December 6, 2018

Former AUSA Disbarred In Louisiana For Anonymous Blog Comments

A former Assistant United States Attorney has been disbarred by the Louisiana Supreme Court for his anonymous blogging

The underlying facts of this case are largely undisputed. By way of background, respondent commenced employment as an Assistant United States Attorney (“AUSA”) with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana (“USAO”) in 1991. At all times relevant to these proceedings, respondent was a Senior Litigation Counsel and the USAO’s training officer.

During the times pertinent to these proceedings, a New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune, maintained an Internet website identified as nola.com. The website typically permitted readers to post comments to news stories using pseudonyms and/or anonymous identities.

Beginning in or around November 2007 and continuing through March 14, 2012, respondent was a frequent poster of comments on a myriad of subjects on  nola.com, including comments on cases which he and/or his colleagues at the USAO were assigned to prosecute. Of the more than 2,600 comments respondent posted, between one hundred and two hundred – less than one percent – related to matters being prosecuted in the USAO. None of the comments identified respondent by name or as an employee of the USAO. Rather, respondent posted on nola.com using at least five online identities: “campstblue,” “legacyusa,” “dramatis personae,” “Henry L. Mencken1951,” and “fed up.”

The court rejected mitigation based on post traumatic stress

the focus of the inquiry in the instant case is on the second factor – namely, whether respondent’s PTSD caused the misconduct at issue. Based on our review of the record, we find no clear and convincing support for the conclusion that respondent’s mental condition had any causative effect on his misconduct. Respondent’s psychologist testified that someone with PTSD can operate at a high level and that respondent knew right from wrong. This testimony is corroborated by respondent’s own admission that even before his conduct was discovered, he knew he should not be engaged in posting extrajudicial comments

Sanction

considering respondent’s position of public trust as a prosecutor, his knowing and intentional decision to post these comments despite his acknowledgment that it was improper to do so, and the serious harm respondent’s conduct has caused both to individual litigants and to the legal profession as a whole, we must conclude he has failed to comply with the high ethical standards we require of lawyers who are granted the privilege to practice law in this state. The only appropriate sanction under these facts is disbarment

Justice Crichton

I agree with the per curiam in all respects, and in particular, that respondent has failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was the cause for his misconduct. I write separately to note that this case highlights the difference between disbarment and permanent disbarment in attorney disciplinary proceedings. Respondent took a voluntary absence from the practice of law during the pendency of these proceedings (approximately five years), in lieu of receiving an interim suspension. However, as the per curiam discusses in footnote 10, absent a formal interim suspension, La. Supreme Court Rule XIX does not provide authority for respondent to receive credit for self-imposed absence from the profession. Had respondent agreed to interim suspension at the outset and received disbarment upon conclusion of formal disciplinary proceedings, respondent would be legally entitled to file a petition for reinstatement much sooner than under the present circumstances. In other words, the sanction of disbarment imposed at this point in respondent’s profession, at the age of 67, is arguably akin to permanent disbarment and essentially a legal profession death sentence. Whether respondent would ever be readmitted – even conditionally readmitted – is a question for another day, but the sanction of disbarment now precludes any consideration of it for five years from the date of this opinion.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/12/a-former-assistant-united-states-attorney-has-been-disbarred-by-the-louisiana-supreme-court-the-underlying-facts-of-this-cas.html

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