Offensive Personality Charge Not Proven
The Indiana Supreme Court found that ethics charges were not proven
The Charge: In its amended disciplinary complaint, the Commission alleged that Respondent violated Indiana Admission and Discipline Rule 22 (Oath of Attorneys) by failing to abstain from offensive personality.
Discussion: The Court incorporates by reference the hearing officer’s findings of fact. The hearing officer concluded the Commission failed to meet its burden of proving the charged violation. After reviewing the evidence and considering the parties’ arguments, the Court concludes that the hearing officer’s findings of fact and conclusions of law are supported by the evidence, which we decline to reweigh.
WTHI 10 reported on the complaint and its dismissal.
The Indiana Lawyer has the most detailed reporting on the allegations
The elected prosecutor of Knox County in southwestern Indiana faces an attorney discipline case related to his conduct stemming from a local police investigation into his former chief deputy prosecutor’s relationship with a woman who was serving time on drug charges. An attorney for the prosecutor, however, is contesting the discipline case and says the prosecutor is the victim of a vendetta born of the small-town rumor mill.
Knox County Prosecutor J. Dirk Carnahan is accused in an attorney discipline complaint of offensive personality and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. The ethics charges are based on his actions during and after he complained about an investigation by a Vincennes police detective who interviewed an inmate regarding allegations that the inmate, who was serving time on a meth conviction, had been sexually involved with a Knox County prosecutor.
Carnahan’s former chief deputy prosecutor, Joseph Burton of Farmersburg, was suspended for 90 days with automatic reinstatement Jan. 29 in an order issued by the Indiana Supreme Court. Carnahan is facing discipline for allegations against him related to the same case, but he is not accused of any inappropriate relationship.
Burton was suspended from the practice of law for his retaliation against the Vincennes police detective who interviewed the woman in jail with whom Burton had a 20-year-long, on-and-off sexual relationship, according to the court.
The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission says Carnahan filed a misconduct complaint against the officer, Det. Stacy Reese, with the Vincennes Police Department. After Reese was cleared by the Vincennes Police Merit Commission, Carnahan sent an email to Police Chief Dusty Luking, which forms the crux of the ethics complaint against Carnahan. The complaint against Carnahan quotes extensively the email he sent Luking, who viewed the email as threatening. In part, the email reads:
“I have heard rumors that you have molested a child. I have no complainant nor any indication that the rumors are true. However, I intend to launch a full-scale investigation. I intend to question your family and friends and repeatedly comment that you are the subject of an official investigation for child molestation. The press may pick up on this and certainly the people you work with every day will hear it. I doubt they will ever again be able to look at you the same way. You will hear whispers among the people you work with. You will wonder how the news of the investigation will affect your children and your family.
“Obviously, I would never do such a thing. For a few seconds, you may have felt some of what I feel every day. My complaint has been that Ms. Reese … did even worse than this. They instituted a formal investigation for something that isn’t criminal and for which no complainant had come forward. In the course of this investigation of something that wasn’t criminal and was based solely on ‘rumors’ they repeated to other officers, to the witness they interviewed and others that ‘there are rumors that Dirk has traded sex’ with criminal defendants. If that had happened to you, you would be furious. Your perspective would be entirely different had you been the target of such a thing.”
Carnahan is represented in his discipline case by attorneys from Dentons Bingham Greenebaum including Meg Christensen, who says the discipline order imposed on Burton mischaracterized evidence against Carnahan — specifically, that the detective did not know which prosecutor had been accused of a relationship with the inmate when she interviewed her behind bars.
(Mike Frisch)