Counting Sheep

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has imposed a six-month suspension of an attorney it had disbarred in 1989 and reinstated in 1999.

He has been reprimanded twice since reinstatement.

Here he engaged in conflicts of interest such as

In February of 2005, at [client] Ms. MacComb’s request, Attorney Campbell drafted a second will for her. The provisions of the 2005 will diminished the scope of the testamentary trust originally created in Ms. MacComb’s 2004 will, and devised Ms. MacComb’s livestock (eight sheep) jointly to Attorney Campbell and his friend, whom he later married…

Ms. MacComb also devised her interest in real estate previously bequeathed to her by Ethel Foley, together with an additional two acres of land, to Attorney Campbell. Attorney Campbell states that he believed that drafting the instrument was appropriate because he had been asked to do so by his client, and she had been given the opportunity to consult independent counsel.

There were further bequests and a resulting will contest.

He engaged in a conflict of interest in an unrelated  criminal matter.

Disclosure: I handled his D.C. disbarment for a marijuana distribution conviction

The Board, viewing our prior decisions as dispositive, rejected respondent’s argument that for purposes of assessing moral turpitude there is a meaningful distinction between cocaine, heroin and marijuana. It relied on In re Roberson, supra, 429 A.2d at 530 (unspecified narcotic drug); In re Gates, No. D-32-79 (D.C.App. Nov. 7, 1979) (heroin) (published at 532 as appendix to In re Roberson), and In re Davis, No. M-92 (D.C.App. Nov. 18, 1981) (cocaine), in which the court concluded that a conviction for the crime of possession, with intent to distribute, of a controlled substance involved a crime of moral turpitude. The Board acknowledged that marijuana is listed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a Schedule I non-narcotic drug and carries a lesser penalty than do narcotic drugs such as cocaine or heroin, but reasoned that the difference in sentencing *1061 for narcotic and non-narcotic drugs is insignificant for purposes of assessing moral turpitude because marijuana distribution is still treated as a serious criminal offense.

 (Mike Frisch)