Ex-Husband Wanted To Help; Attorney Convicted And Suspended
Reciprocal discipline was imposed in Massachusetts as a result of a Connecticut sanction stemming from the attorney’s criminal conviction.
On September 2, 2015, the respondent pleaded guilty (pursuant to North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970)) in the Superior Court for the Judicial District of New London, Connecticut, to accessory to burglary in the third degree, a felony, in violation of C.G.S. §§ 53a- 8 and 53a-103. The respondent was sentenced to incarceration for four years, with execution suspended and probation for three years. As a result of her conviction, the respondent was suspended from the practice of law in Connecticut for one year by the Superior Court for the Judicial District of Waterbury, Connecticut, on October 5, 2015.
On February 2, 2016, bar counsel filed a notice of conviction and petition for reciprocal discipline with the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County based upon the Connecticut order of suspension. On February 3, 2016, the parties submitted to the court a waiver in which they agreed to the entry of an order suspending the respondent for one year, retroactive to October 12, 2015, the effective date of the respondent’s Connecticut suspension. The parties further agreed that the respondent’s reinstatement to the Massachusetts bar be conditioned upon her reinstatement in Connecticut. On March 14, 2016, the Court (Hines, J.) so ordered.
The Norwich Bulletin reported on the incident in which she persuaded her ex-husband beat up her just ex-boyfriend, who got a three-year sentence.
Assistant State’s Attorney David Smith, who was the prosecuting attorney, said that on June 11, 2014, the day after Doerr-Hicks broke up with her boyfriend, she and her ex-husband, James Hicks, went drinking and decided to drive to the boyfriend’s home at about 1 a.m.
During the night, Doerr-Hicks sent the boyfriend numerous threatening texts, Smith said. “She told (Hicks) to commit the assault,” he said.
Doerr-Hicks told police she had broken up with her boyfriend because she suspected him of cheating. A drunken Hicks, kicked in the front door of the ex-boyfriend’s house and attacked him as he slept.
“I was still in my bed when he jumped me and started punching me in the head and face,” the man told police.
Hicks inflicted bloody injuries to the man’s face and head, causing him to be treated at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, according to police.
“It’s sad she (Doerr-Hicks) won’t be serving the citizens of the quiet corner,” said Doerr-Hicks’ defense attorney Mark A. Dubois. “She understands that her actions have consequences,” he said.
Doerr-Hicks said she will continue as a paralegal during her suspension.
Doerr-Hicks is a former Bulletin reporter.
(Mike Frisch)