Copping To Disbarment

Disbarment retroactive to the date of  an interim suspension was imposed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for an attorney’s criminal conviction while serving as a police officer

The respondent’s conviction resulted from his conduct as a police officer for a Massachusetts municipality, which included attempting to coerce the settlement of a civil claim by threatening to use the power or authority invested in him against the victim. Attempted extortion and witness intimidation are felonies, and as such are serious crimes as defined in S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 12(3). Filing a false police report is also a serious crime under § 12(3) because it requires proof of a misrepresentation.

The crime

On February 16, 2011, David M. Cohen, who was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on December 15, 1997, was found guilty after a trial by jury in the Norfolk County Superior Court of one count of attempted extortion in violation of G.L. c. 265, § 25; one count of intimidating a witness in violation of G.L. c. 268, § 13B; and one count of filing a false police report in violation of G.L. c. 268, § 6A. On February 22, 2011, the respondent was sentenced to concurrent terms of two and a half years to two and a half years and one day at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction on the charges of attempted extortion and intimidation of a witness (with credit for time served) and three years’ probation, 150 hours of community service, and attendance at a legal ethics course on the charge of filing a false police report, to be served on and after the respondent’s release from custody. The respondent has served his full sentence and has been discharged from probation.

(Mike Frisch)