Crimes Draw Indefinite Suspension

The Ohio Supreme Court indefinitely suspended an attorney for a series of criminal acts

In a February 2023 complaint, relator, disciplinary counsel, charged Hartley with six violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct arising out of conduct related to his misdemeanor convictions for assault, disorderly conduct, telecommunications harassment, and menacing.

Assault conviction

One night in January 2020, Hartley contacted L.T., whose adult son Hartley had previously represented in a criminal matter. Over several hours, Hartley and L.T. spoke by phone and exchanged text messages. Sounding inebriated, Hartley repeatedly insisted that L.T. come to his home. L.T. declined, but out of concern for his well-being, she said she would talk with him if he came to her residence.

When Hartley arrived at L.T.’s home, he was visibly intoxicated. While at the home, Hartley made several inappropriate and sexually charged comments about L.T.’s 13-year-old daughter, E.T. L.T. asked Hartley to leave, but he refused. L.T. then attempted to call 9-1-1, prompting a physical struggle, during which Hartley tried to take her cellphone. When police officers arrived, they observed that Hartley’s speech was loud and slurred, that he was stumbling, and that he smelled of alcohol.

First disorderly conduct conviction

In August 2020, Hartley and his wife, C.H., had an argument at their home. C.H. alleged that Hartley grabbed her, threw her down, and stepped on her neck with his foot; Hartley denied these allegations. Two days later, Hartley was charged with one count of domestic violence, a first-degree misdemeanor in violation of R.C. 2919.25. Later that day, C.H. filed for and received an ex parte domestic-violence civil protection order. The next week, C.H. filed for divorce.

Second

In October 2020, Hartley was with his two daughters, eight-year-old N.H. and six-year-old A.H., at his law office. According to a detective’s statement of facts filed in the Kettering Municipal Court, Hartley grabbed N.H., who was sitting in a chair, by the neck and squeezed her neck with his hand, leaving her unable to breathe. The detective further stated that while holding her neck, Hartley lifted N.H. from the chair and told her to “shut up” before releasing her.

M.A.M., the girls’ mother, filed for and received an ex parte domestic-violence civil protection order protecting N.H. and A.H. Hartley was charged with one count of domestic violence, in violation of R.C. 2919.25; two counts of child endangering, in violation of R.C. 2919.22(A) and (B); and one count of assault, in violation of R.C. 2903.13—all first-degree misdemeanors. A jury found Hartley not guilty of domestic violence and assault, and the prosecution dismissed the R.C. 2919.22(B) child-endangering count. The jury could not reach a verdict on the other child-endangering count, so the judge scheduled another trial on that count.

He then pled no contest to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

Telephone harassment

In September and October 2021, Hartley made a series of posts and comments aimed at C.H. on his public Facebook account, which featured more than 500 friends, including judges, Dayton-area attorneys, and clerks of court. These posts included vulgar references to C.H.—calling her a “simple cunt,” a “whore,” an “awful, evil, malicious, wicked[] woman,” a “sociopath,” and a “pathological liar.” In one post, Hartley stated that he had a video of C.H. engaging in sexual activity and threatened to release it, and in another post, he accused C.H. of extortion and adultery. Hartley’s posts included hashtags of C.H.’s maiden, married, and current last names.

Result

Hartley pleaded no contest to, and was found guilty of, one of the telecommunications-harassment counts, and the remaining charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to a fully suspended term of 180 days in jail, fined $1,000 with $950 suspended, and ordered to serve five years of supervised probation with conditions.

Menacing

Hartley and M.A.M. entered into a shared-parenting agreement for N.H. and A.H. in 2017. In August 2021, attorney Michelle Maciorowski, who represented M.A.M. in the custody case, filed a motion to terminate the agreement and to award M.A.M. full custody and child support. The motion alleged that Hartley had “been acting erratically and ha[d] a history of making threats of violence towards [M.A.M.] and the children’s step-father” and referred to the criminal cases then pending against Hartley.

After the motion was filed, Hartley made public threats against Maciorowski on his Facebook account. In one post, Harley called Maciorowski a “fat cunt” and a “moron” and stated that he was “still waiting on [her] thanks for a bullet not being placed in [her] brain.” In other posts, he called her a “liar” and, in explaining that she should not “fuck with” his family, wrote that “he [would] fucking roll [her]” and added: “Words, actions, have consequence. :).”

She filed a police report

Hartley pleaded no contest to, and was found guilty of, the menacing count, and the remaining charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to a fully suspended term of 30 days in jail, fined $250 with $200 suspended, and ordered to serve three years of supervised probation with conditions.

No credit for time served on interim remedial suspension

Having reviewed the record and our applicable precedent, we conclude that an indefinite suspension with no credit for time Hartley has served under his interim remedial suspension is the appropriate sanction for his misconduct in this case. We therefore adopt the board’s recommendation, including the conditions on Hartley’s reinstatement to the practice of law.

(Mike Frisch)