Abuse Victim Sanctioned For Harboring Abuser

A one-year suspension has been ordered by the Oklahoma Supreme Court effective as of the date of the attorney’s interim suspension for a criminal conviction. 

The interim suspension was imposed exactly one year ago today. 

Unless I am mistaken, the effect of the decision is to reinstate the attorney. 

Respondent…was admitted to the practice of law in Oklahoma in 2011. She has had no prior discipline. The PRT describes this summary disciplinary matter as “a very unfortunate picture of an attorney who found herself embroiled in a relationship which ultimately made her the victim of domestic abuse.” PRT Report, 1. The PRT recounts how the testimony of Respondent and character witnesses depicted “a sound individual and very capable attorney who became romantically involved with a former client.” Id. This former client, Adrian David Ray Gerdon, physically and mentally abused Respondent throughout their relationship, including strangulation, death threats, punching, hitting, and whipping with a belt. Id. at Ex. A, ¶ 14; Hr’g Tr., 225-37.

In September 2016, after a fight in which Gerdon felt Respondent was “being disrespectful,” he beat her multiple times with a belt, asking: “Did you learn your lesson about having an attitude?” Hr’g Tr., 237. Respondent went to bed in severe pain, and a few hours later Gerdon woke her in the middle of the night standing over her body, throwing water on her with a lighter in his hand. Id. at 237-38; see also PRT Report, Ex. A, ¶ 18. He told her he was covering her in gasoline and was going to set her on fire. Gerdon often joked about how funny this incident was and how he would like to do it again. Hr’g Ex. 20, JEX 625; Hr’g Tr., 238-39. Record text messages confirm one instance in which Respondent tried to leave Gerdon and he responded: “You are F***ing psychotic! You aren’t going anywhere! Stay your ass there[;] we are about to have a come to Jesus moment! I am seriously pisse[d] the f*** off!” Hr’g Ex. 18, JEX 602.

The attorney “met Gerdon’s every financial and personal need at great personal cost” incurring as much as $75,000 in personal debt on his behalf.

How he repaid

Following a vicious assault by Gerdon with a knife in January 2016, Respondent obtained a protective order against him.  The State brought criminal charges, and on June 21, 2016, Gerdon pled guilty to domestic abuse assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, larceny from a house, and unauthorized use of a vehicle. On the same date, Gerdon also pled guilty and received convictions in seven separately styled cases involving Respondent and other victims.  Pursuant to plea negotiations, the district court ordered all cases and counts to run concurrently for a combined twelve-year sentence, all suspended, with stated conditions including in-patient treatment through the VA Hospital Psychiatric Unit.

Respondent then secured Gerdon’s bail bondsman, who stated in a sworn affidavit that Respondent contacted her immediately after the hearing, advised of Gerdon’s commitment at the VA, and offered to provide the address of this location if needed. Hr’g Ex. 3, JEX 44. The bondsman and her bonding agents agreed they did not need to pick up Gerdon, even after discharge from the VA facility, “since he had a court date to turn himself in.” Id. The bondsman advised the Pottawatomie County Court Clerk’s Office that she would “wait for [Gerdon] to turn himself in at his court date because [the bondsman] did not believe he was a flight risk.” Id. Respondent told the bondsman if for whatever reason Gerdon failed to show up on the 31st, she would take the bondsman to him. Hr’g Tr., 264-65. Indeed, as cosigner on the bond, Respondent would be responsible for the full amount if Gerdon fled. After Gerdon left the VA facility on December 29, 2017, he returned to his personal residence where he had been living since October 2017. Hr’g Ex. 2, JEX 37.

With full knowledge that the district court had not withdrawn the warrants, Respondent continued to provide Gerdon with the same financial, emotional, and physical support she had provided throughout their relationship. She repeatedly brought him whatever food, cash, and supplies he requested, and he continued to use the vehicle she had previously bought him. Based on Gerdon’s continued threats, Respondent testified that she believed: “[I]f I don’t do what he wants, he’s going to hurt me or he’s going to ruin my career.” Hr’g Tr., 330. On January 24, 2018, Gerdon was arrested on his outstanding warrants and taken into custody.

The attorney was then charged

the Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office charged Respondent with one felony count of Harboring a Fugitive From Justice, in violation of 21 O.S.2011, § 440.  On September 11, 2019, Respondent entered a blind plea of no contest, and the district court sentenced Respondent to two years, all suspended, 100 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine.

Her background

 The extensive record of Respondent’s educational and professional achievements, civic and religious involvement, and upstanding reputation in the community all draw a sharp contrast to the decisions she made after becoming entrenched in this abusive relationship. Respondent was valedictorian of her high school class. She graduated magna cum laude from the honors college at Oklahoma Baptist University with a double major in political science and music performance. She then attended law school at The University of Oklahoma College of Law where she earned numerous awards for oral advocacy as well as three “American Jurisprudence” honors for the highest grade in her class. Respondent is a past president of the Shawnee Bar Association, officer in the Shawnee Rotary Club, officer in the philanthropic nonprofit “Soldiers for Christ,” board member for Youth and Family Services, auxiliary member for Project Safe (domestic violence agency), and member of the Shawnee Area Music Teachers Association.

Before Gerdon, Respondent had never previously been in a romantic relationship. Until age thirty, she lived with her mother who treated her like a young child, controlling her finances, personal life, and social life. Hr’g Tr., 198, 201, 205-07, 212-14; PRT Report, Ex. A, ¶¶ 10-12. Respondent described that since her parents’ divorce at age ten and her father’s abusive, inappropriate behavior toward her, she knew she wanted to become a lawyer to advocate for women and children. Hr’g Tr., 189-90; PRT Report, Ex. A, ¶ 40. Pursuing this goal in law school, Respondent began interning in the District Attorney’s Office in Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties, and by her third year she was hired as the director for the Unzner Child Advocacy Center. She secured grant funding, regained the Center’s accreditation, oversaw forensic interviews, and coordinated multidisciplinary teams of law enforcement, child welfare workers, and prosecutors. Hr’g Tr., 196.

Upon finishing law school and passing the Bar, the District Attorney hired Respondent as an ADA to prosecute domestic violence cases in the same counties. While working as a prosecutor, Respondent’s maternal grandmother, to whom she was very close, was placed on hospice and died within three days. Hr’g Ex. 2, JEX 32. The District Attorney unexpectedly fired Respondent during this time. Respondent’s former co-worker at the DA’s Office testified to his belief that Respondent’s sudden termination was “politically charged” because Respondent had recently announced her intention to run against her boss for District Attorney in the next election. Hr’g Tr., 42-43. Respondent testified that she was devastated by her termination and felt like quitting her life-long passion of practicing law. Id. at 289. It was four months later that she met Gerdon

Disciplinary sanction

In this case, Respondent’s crime was assisting Gerdon while knowing he had outstanding arrest warrants. As a former Assistant District Attorney, a criminal conviction for harboring a fugitive connotes a particularly significant violation of her ethical obligations. Respondent’s arrest and conviction were publicized in local media and reflected poorly on the Bar and legal profession as a whole. Additionally, Respondent admits that she understood Gerdon’s propensity for violence and recognized the potential that he could injure someone in the weeks leading up to his court date. Even so, the PRT was convinced that Respondent’s actions were motivated by self-protection and colored by a consistent history of Gerdon acting on his threats of violence against her. The Court finds significant the voluminous record evidence of Respondent’s attempts to get Gerdon to communicate with his probation officer, return to in-patient treatment before his reset hearing, and affirmatively appear for his upcoming court date. Respondent’s efforts to ensure Gerdon appeared are corroborated by the fact that she cosigned on his bond and by testimony of the State’s investigating officer at her criminal sentencing hearing.¹² In evaluating Respondent’s misconduct, we specifically note that Respondent made no attempt to actively lie to law enforcement, assist Gerdon to flee the jurisdiction, or in any way encourage him to not appear at his upcoming revocation hearing. We also do not overlook the bondsman’s statements made to Respondent and to the district court that Gerdon did not need to be picked up on the warrants because he did not pose a flight risk and he had a reset court date.

The compelling mitigation in this record reflects that Respondent acted, and failed to take action, more as a victimized partner than as a lawyer. Her misconduct did not involve or implicate any breach in her duty to competently represent her clients. Respondent has made significant efforts to take responsibly and productively move beyond this chapter in her life. She has terminated all contact with Gerdon, committed to regular therapeutic counseling, and continued to serve within her community. She has complied with the terms and conditions of her suspended sentence as well as this Court’s interim suspension. Respondent has had no prior discipline, and evidence presented at the PRT hearing ardently shows she is unlikely to reoffend. Respondent is exceedingly contrite and remorseful. She takes full responsibility that her support of Gerdon was wrong. Her decisions have carried significant emotional, financial, and professional costs, and she is now a convicted felon…

I concur, but I am compelled to express the need to exercise discretion under these very unfortunate circumstances in which this attorney finds herself. Those circumstances are primarily the abuse inflicted on Respondent by a former client, Adrian David Ray Gerdon–including assault by knife, strangulation, death threats, punching, hitting, and whipping with a belt. Respondent’s attempts to leave this relationship were met with threats to her career and life…