Harsh Result
A recent disbarment from the Nevada Supreme Court
Plunkett was convicted, via a guilty plea, of a felony for using a cell phone with client inmates housed at Clark County Detention Center. Further, evidence in the record showed that Plunkett allowed a client inmate housed with the Nevada Department of Corrections to touch her in a sexual manner in violation of that department’s policies. Plunkett also made false statements regarding these actions to the State Bar, to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detective, and in federal court proceedings…
We are not convinced that the mitigating factor warrants less severe discipline. The record supports the aggravating factors (substantial experience in the practice of law and illegal conduct) and one of the mitigating factors (no prior discipline) found by the panel, but we disagree with the panel’s conclusion that Plunkett showed remorse. As such, we conclude that disbarment is appropriate to serve the purpose of attorney discipline to protect the public, the courts, and the legal profession, State Bar of Nev. v. Claiborne, 104 Nev. 115, 213, 756 P.2d 464, 527-28 (1988), and reject the panel’s recommendation of a five-year-and-one-day suspension.
News 3 Las Vegas reports on matter
Defense attorneys aren’t supposed to come to court shackled and in prison clothes.
But in March, that was Alexis Plunkett, in court to cut a deal, pleading guilty to giving inmates – her clients – access to cellphones, something prohibited at the Clark County Detention Center.
Her legal odyssey led to Nevada’s Supreme Court on Friday disbarring Plunkett from practice.
“I am in shock. I am devastated. This is the only career that I’ve ever wanted. This is the only career that I’ve ever known,” Plunkett told News 3 by phone Monday.
And potentially, for Plunkett, it’s a career derailed.
“Regarding the cell phone, am I sorry that I used the cell phone? Of course. I did not know it was illegal,” she said. “I’m sorrier that I was so viciously targeted by the state.”
Plunkett claims her legal problems, spanning several years, amount to retribution for defending her then-boyfriend, inmate Andrew Arevalo, after he was shot in the face in 2014 at Nevada’s High Desert State Prison.
RELATED | Las Vegas attorney accused of intimidating witness will remain in jail with no bail
The incident with the cell phone happened in 2017. Plunkett said it was an honest error: she maintains she was trying to help her clients arrange bail.
“Regarding the cellphone, I 100% regret that. I did not fully read the waiver. I checked the box that said I was bringing a cellphone in and was going to use it for casework. I genuinely did not understand I could not use the cellphone for casework,” Plunkett says.
Surveillance cameras showed video of Plunkett at a small conference table with an inmate, cellphone in the middle at the Clark County Detention Center. One of the inmates was Arevalo.
Plunkett says the romance got her in hot water with the Nevada Attorney General’s office. Plunkett tells us she’s never denied there was a romantic connection.
“I’ve never said that I was not personally involved with Andrew Arevalo,” she says.
In March, when she cut the deal, prosecutors, in exchange, dropped charges against her of making threats and intimidating witnesses.
She denied those charges to us today, saying they were a ploy to get her back into custody.
At the time, her attorney, Adam Solinger, said the text messages in question reflected a client under severe stress, simply venting.
“It doesn’t show a serious threat, not to mention the detective at the last hearing in January indicated that the police never took this seriously as a real threat,” Solinger said earlier this year.
Prosecutors said they were more serious, but they dropped the charges and recommended she be suspended from law practice for five years and a day.
Nevada’s highest court rejects that.
RELATED| Las Vegas lawyer pleads guilty to giving inmate cellphone, other charges dropped
“Her misconduct injured the profession and the legal system,” the court’s disbarment order says, which means Plunkett will not practice law here – period.
Her next move?
“I feel as though there are some issues that could possibly be addressed. So I am seeking the advice of a Nevada attorney right now and am considering my options,” she says. “I’m already a convicted felon, but to lose the right to participate in my career when that is the only thing that I’ve ever worked toward – all I ever wanted to do is represent the underdog, represent criminal defendants, represent prison inmates.”
Plunkett believes the parade of negative publicity has painted an inaccurate picture of who she is.
“I feel like the public, via the media, has gotten a very different picture of who I am,” she told us. “The people who truly know me are my clients, who have never throughout this done anything but support me.”
Published reports say Plunkett lives out-of-state, which she confirmed Monday. She prefers to keep her location confidential.
“I’ve had threats to my life as a result of this. I’ve had horrible, horrible, scary messages, and I’ve never given anyone permission to print where I’m located,” she says.
(Mike Frisch)