Encouraging Violence Draws Third Disbarment

Reciprocal discipline imposed by the New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department

In January 2021, respondent was disbarred by order of the Supreme Court of Florida based upon uncontested allegations of his continued and escalating pattern of disparaging statements and threatening behavior against members of the bench and bar, including statements made on publicly available social media platforms (Florida Bar v Lynum, 2021 WL 209198 [Fla 2021]). In August 2021, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals disbarred respondent based upon his Florida misconduct. AGC now moves to discipline respondent based upon his Florida misconduct underlying his 2021 disbarment in that state.

Merits

Notably, many of respondent’s statements on social media not only impugned the personal and professional integrity of certain members of the judiciary, but also encouraged the public to engage in violent acts against these individuals, as well as against the opposing counsel in his divorce proceedings — whose home address he had posted on the Internet. Further, by failing to participate in this disciplinary proceeding, respondent has not only failed to demonstrate any mitigating circumstances, but also evinces his lack of interest in his fate as an attorney in this state. We further note respondent’s failure to express remorse or acknowledge the impropriety of his misconduct at any point in this or the underlying proceedings.

…we find that respondent’s continued pattern of egregious behavior does not warrant a deviation from the severity of his Florida disciplinary sanction.

ABA Journal reported on the Florida matter

A Florida lawyer accused of making outrageous and threatening online remarks was arrested earlier this month and disbarred last week.

The Florida Supreme Court disbarred lawyer Edward Juan Lynum in a Jan. 21 order, about two weeks after his arrest on charges that included threatening harm to a public servant, Law360 reports.

Satan, witchcraft and racism were themes in Lynum’s online posts, according to an uncontested disciplinary referee’s report and an arrest report cited by the Daily Commercial.

Lynum’s online posts describe himself as the victim of a conspiracy in which judges and political figures conspired to kill him and destroy his life due to their bigotry and worship of satanic spiritual forces, according to the arrest report.

In one post cited in the arrest affidavit, Lynum allegedly wrote, “God strengthens us to kill … It is time to kill.”

Satan was also a theme of online posts cited by the referee in the disciplinary case. The referee found Lynum wrote Facebook posts that disparaged the judiciary in Sumter County and opposing counsel in his divorce, as well as the bar counsel, The Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court.

Lynum’s posts “have grown more frequent, threatening and outrageous” as the ethics case progressed, the referee found.

Lynum said in a July 2019 Facebook post that the first judge who presided in his divorce “fabricates evidence” and is “a dirty stain in our clean SUMTER COUNTY,” according to the referee’s report.

On his blog, Lynum said the judge has a reputation as “a judge who fabricates evidence and fabricates the evidence in red font, so it screams pagan witchcraft. Her decision to fabricate evidence in red-font screams, ‘I am Satan’ in white people’s words.”

In another Facebook post, Lynum accused the judge who took over the divorce case of sodomizing Lynum’s daughter, the referee said. On his blog, Lynum said the judge issued “a satanic order” and said judges like him “have weaponized their judicial power for evil that appear racist to minorities. I don’t and won’t call it racism because it trivializes and distracts from his objective criminal behavior and practice of witchcraft.”

The referee also pointed to a post in which Lynum allegedly said the two judges “can’t hide from my almighty God’s vengeance; like David, I will kill Goliath and hold up his bloodied and severed head with a smile on my face.”

He also called the first judge “a dumb, satanic slut” and referred to bar counsel as a worthless and inept “satanic slut,” the referee said. And he allegedly said the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court should be executed for tolerating hate crimes and witchcraft.

(Mike Frisch)