Reinstated After Crimes Of Violence

The Louisiana Supreme Court has reinstated an attorney convicted of two criminal offenses.

The initial felony charges of simple rape and second degree battery resulted in pleas to charges of simple and second degree battery. The second degree battery plea was in the rape case.

The attorney had been placed on interim suspension after the guilty pleas. He eventually received a two-year suspension by consent.

The victim was an employee of the attorney’s law office.

IND Media had this report on the civil case brought by the employee;

The civil suit, brought by the former female employee known only as J.K. in court papers, accuses the law firm of liability in the crime, citing a promiscuous, libidinous culture within the firm. A Lafayette judge dismissed the suit, but the appeals court reversed that judgment and remanded the case to district court for further proceedings.

Eye-opening accusations made in the appeal include testimony from former employees who described an office culture awash in alcohol and bristling with sexual innuendo, and a culture in which female employees considered themselves under siege by [the attorney’s] booze-fueled sexual advances…

Justice Clark dissented from the reinstatement. In his view, the “abhorrent conduct” involved two crimes of violence.

Justice Clark believes that such conduct would likely to prevent admission in Louisiana and that reinstatement here is a “lowering of standards demanded of members of the Bar.”

Justice Guidry also would not readmit.

No order of the majority explaining the rationale was posted on the court’s web page. (Mike Frisch)