A New Hope

The trend that gives me the most hope for the future of the District of Columbia bar discipline system has been the recent upswing in cases where the Board on Professional Responsibility promptly issues a short summary report adopting the findings and conclusions of a hearing committee.

The BPR did precisely that on December 21 in a case involving intentional misappropriation and disbarment

The Hearing Committee found ample evidence of intentional misappropriation in the case of Jean Marie Sigmou, who was involved in an automobile accident on or about September 8, 2009. Respondent received a total of $7,500 in insurance settlements in Mr. Sigmou’s case. He paid $2,341 to medical providers, and gave Mr. Sigmou a check for $2,659, which left only $2,500 remaining from the insurance checks. However, before Mr. Sigmou cashed his check on March 9, 2010, Respondent withdrew $4,600 from his trust account ($800 on January 13; $2,900 on January 21; $300 on February 22; and, $600 on March 3). As a result, there were insufficient funds in the trust account when Mr. Sigmou cashed his check, resulting in an overdraft. Thus, Respondent misappropriated funds due to Mr. Sigmou…

In a letter to Disciplinary Counsel, Respondent admitted that this overdraft was a result of his “tampering” with the trust account and that he had no excuse for his conduct, and he sought mercy. While his letter does not explain precisely what Respondent means by tampering, read in the context of his failure to offer any justification for the overdraft, it is clear that Respondent was acknowledging that he intentionally took money out of the trust account, knowing that such a withdrawal was not permitted. Thus, Respondent’s misappropriation was intentional.

For these and other reasons set forth in the Hearing Committee’s Report and Recommendation, which is attached hereto and adopted and incorporated by reference, we recommend that Respondent be disbarred, the sanction mandated by Addams.

Timeline: Hearing committee report issued October 26, 2016; BPR report in less than two months. 

This sudden outbreak of efficiency and common sense (which may well be the direct result of a long overdue  change of leadership in the BPR’s office) was authored by non-attorney board member David Bernstein.

Mr. Bernstein was an ideal non-attorney hearing committee member who had the guts and intelligence to disagree with the attorney members (and write excellent dissents, as reported here).

His elevation to the BPR is also a hopeful sign of potential progress.

The case is In re Peter Njang.

The Yelverton case – in which Mr. Bernstein dissented – has an interesting history.

The attorney represented an alleged victim who testified at a criminal bench trial that resulted in an acquittal. The attorney frivolously (a little thing called double jeopardy and another little thing called lack of standing) sought reconsideration and then appealed in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The court referred both Yelverton and the criminal defense attorney for a bar investigation

[T]he conduct of counsel for both appellant . . . and cross-appellant . . . raise serious concerns as to the propriety of actions taken and judgment exercised by both and the matter is hereby referred to Bar Counsel for investigation in that regard.

On return, the court found that the course of conduct resulted in Rules 3.1 and 8.4 violations but not  breaches of duties to the client. 

The attorney members of the hearing committee had found no violations with a dissent by Mr. Bernstein. The BPR found misconduct a recommended a 90-day suspension with fitness. The court reduced the suspension to 30 days but agreed with the fitness requirement.

Yelverton did not serve his own cause well by barraging the court with pleadings even after he was ordered sua sponte to stop.

The court also sua sponte ordered respondent to stop submitting motions and pleadings in this case without leave of the court. Subsequent to that order, respondent has filed additional submissions (most seeking leave) to remand this case to the Hearing Committee, to give notice of his reservation of constitutional claims for resolution by the U.S. District Court, to provide citations to supplemental authority, to request that the court take judicial notice of various proceedings in other courts, and to refer a new matter, an order of the U.S. District Court, to the Hearing Committee for an initial determination of the facts he disputes in that order. Respondent‟s motions have been either returned for failing to comply with the December 13, 2013, order or denied.

He also moved to recuse two Bar Counsel attorneys and sued one of them in federal court in an effort to enjoin the disciplinary proceedings. (Mike Frisch)