Affairs Of The Heart And The Duty To Disclose

The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board reviewed a hearing committee report and recommends  a stayed six-month suspension with one year of unsupervised probation and 20 hours of CLE for an attorney’s failure to disclose an “intimate, romantic relationship” with an FBI agent/witness while serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. 

The hearing committee had proposed an actual six-month suspension.

The board noted that the parties had agreed that the actual suspension should be imposed but exercised its independent authority to determine an appropriate proposed sanction.

Of particular interest here is the concurring opinion of Board Member Linda Bizzarro, who notes her view as a career prosecutor and retired AUSA that “discovery issues are better handled by the criminal court system and not by the disciplinary system.”

Member Bizzarro notes that the trial judge found the relationship was irrelevant in the criminal case and that the Office of Professional Responsibility of the Department of Justice found no Rule 3.8 violation.

She also notes that the attorney stipulated to violations to bring the matter to a prompter conclusion.

She concludes

The exact parameters potential impeachment information under Giglio are not easily determined…as [prosecutors] proceed in unchartered waters, they must add to their consideration affairs of the heart.

Our prior coverage is linked here.

An “intimate,  romantic” relationship between an Assistant United States Attorney and her lead FBI agent in two cases has led to a proposed six-month suspension and probation by a Louisiana Hearing Committee.

The hearing committee found that the AUSA had failed to disclose the conflict in the investigations and prosecutions of Monroe Councilmen “Red” Stevens and Arthur Gilmore and a separate prosecution of Ouachita Parish Sheriff Royce Toney.

In the Toney case, the AUSA responded to the defendant’s supposed “spreading rumors” about the affair (true rumors, it turns out) by making the defendant submit to a “perp walk.”

The hearing committee also found that she lied to the United States Attorney when confronted.

The relationship was found to create a Rule 1.7 conflict of interest.

The Times Picayune had a 2008 story about Member Bizzarro. (Mike Frisch)