No Reinstatement After Airport Altercation Suspension
An Illinois Hearing Board has recommended that a petition for reinstatement to practice be denied.
The attorney’s first ethics violation involved her failure to disclose her client’s death during settlement negotiations of a workers’ compensation claim.
The sanction was a censure.
The second matter
involved Petitioner’s conduct in October 2002 at O’Hare Airport. Petitioner, while intoxicated, got into an altercation with her boyfriend who was trying to prevent her from driving while intoxicated. The Hearing Board in that matter credited a police officer’s testimony that he had observed Petitioner strike her boyfriend.
Petitioner also physically attacked and used racial and vulgar epithets towards multiple police officers who responded to the disturbance. The Hearing Board determined Petitioner engaged in the criminal act of battery and disorderly conduct when she physically attacked the police officers.
This matter drew a stayed 30-month suspension with probation. Continued drinking resulted in probation revocation.
The board
Although we recognize Petitioner’s sobriety date marked a significant change in her life, we still believe it necessary to consider Petitioner’s outrageous behavior that occurred since discipline was imposed but prior to sobriety. This conduct demonstrates what behavior Petitioner is capable of engaging in if she continues to disregard the treatment recommendations of Dr. Jeckel and Dr. Bohlen and again abuses drugs and alcohol.
Since being disciplined and while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Petitioner continually exercised poor judgment and decision-making that often demonstrated disrespect for the law. She engaged in a pattern of violating conditions of probation and supervision, which resulted in her probation in her second disciplinary case and her supervision in her criminal domestic battery case being revoked. She also regularly demonstrated a disrespect for and a failure to cooperate with law enforcement as evidenced by the March 2007 domestic battery incident and March 2008 forged check incident, as well as her failure to cooperate with the police when questioned about her vehicle that had been used in an armed robbery in December 2011. Moreover, Petitioner regularly lent her car to drug dealers to support her drug addiction. She also acted suspiciously by leaving the Currency Exchange without her identification after being informed that the check she was attempting to negotiate had been forged and the police had been called.
During this time period, Petitioner also demonstrated a disregard of the obligations of the legal profession. Petitioner failed to timely comply with her obligations under Supreme Court Rules 764 and 780. She also failed to return unearned fees to her clients and failed to respond to the Client Protection Program’s requests for information regarding her client matters. Petitioner also disregarded the Kohl’s attendance policy that she was apprised of on a number of occasions and was discharged for exceeding the number of allowable absences
Not only are we concerned with Petitioner’s conduct before sobriety because it demonstrates the conduct she is capable of engaging in if untreated, but we find her current attitude towards this conduct extremely troubling. Petitioner, despite now being sober and claiming to have recognized the severity of her alcoholism and drug abuse, demonstrated an unwillingness or inability to take responsibility for her past conduct. Instead, she continually tried to defend and minimize her conduct. In addition, she failed to demonstrate sincere regret for her past behavior that resulted in harm to herself, law enforcement, and members of the community. Petitioner’s attitude towards this conduct significantly weighs against reinstatement.
The board further opined that reinstatement should be conditioned on her compliance with treatment recommendations. (Mike Frisch)