Lawyer Enters “Forbidden Zone” And Gets Indefinite Suspension

An indefinite suspension was imposed by the Maryland Court of Appeals for a sex offense conviction.

On August 1, 2009, [Eckel] was arrested at his law office and charged with attempted second degree rape, attempted second degree sexual offense, second degree assault, fourth degree sexual offense, and false imprisonment. The charges arose from an incident which occurred at approximately 12:21 a.m. on August 1, 2009, when [Eckel] got into a physical altercation with a female on a couch in his law office in Cambridge, Maryland.

The facts established at trial before the Circuit Court for Dorchester County, Maryland, were as follows: On the evening of Saturday, July 31, 2009, [Eckel] went to a Cambridge Bar to have a couple of beers. He left the bar around 10:30 p.m. to purchase cigarettes from a local convenience store, which required him to drive down Race Street. At the traffic light at Cedar Street, Tara Cannon, a woman who [Eckel] claimed to have never met before the night in question, walked toward his car and waved at him. He waved back. She walked away as he drove off. After making his purchase, [Eckel] drove back toward the bar and saw the same woman sitting on a bench at the intersection of Race and Cedar Streets. Again Ms. Cannon waved at him. [Eckel’s] windows were down, and Cannon allegedly asked him if he wanted “to party.” He responded, “why not?” and invited her into his car. Claiming not to have enough cash to take her to a bar, he drove to his nearby law office. They walked inside, sat on a sofa, and [Eckel] put on a concert tape as they began small talk.

The trial court provided the conflicting accounts of events that then transpired and relied principally on the facts of the conviction.

The trial judge (using the royal “we”) found that both lawyer and victim had impaired judgment and that

We believe their evening . . . was aided by the consumption of controlled dangerous substances. We believe that Mr. Eckel attempted to have sexual relations and he initiated that by starting at an innocent place of the body, proceeding to the forbidden zone. We further believe that Ms. Cannon protested and in the course of attempting to overcome her and have his way that evening he did assault and falsely imprison her.

The court found that the facts did not rise to the level of disbarment-worthy conduct.

The oral argument before the court is linked here, (Mike Frisch)