When You Kiss A Police Detective

The Nevada Supreme Court has accepted an attorney’s consent to disbarment after his reinstatement from an earlier suspension

The declaration states that Crawford freely and voluntarily consents to disbarment after having had the opportunity to consult with counsel. Crawford acknowledges that he violated the terms of a reinstatement order issued by this court and that the State Bar provided documentation with an SCR 102(4) petition that shows Crawford violated RPC 1.8(j) (conflict of interest: sexual relations with a client), RPC 8.4(a) (misconduct: violation or attempted violation of the RPCs), and RPC 8.4(b) (misconduct: criminal act that reflects adversely on fitness of a lawyer). Finally, Crawford concedes that the material facts in the petition for disbarment by consent are true and admits that he could not successfully defend against a disciplinary complaint.

The case is IN THE MATTER OF DISCIPLINE OF DOUGLAS C. CRAWFORD, BAR NO. 181

From the earlier case

Under the conditional guilty plea agreement, Crawford admitted to 65 violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct, primarily involving misappropriation of client funds, which totaled approximately $398,345. ” 

Sanction

Having reviewed the record and briefs regarding this matter, we conclude that the mitigating circumstances outweigh the aggravating circumstances, and as a result, a five-year suspension is the appropriate discipline. We impose, however, strict requirements that Crawford must meet before applying for reinstatement. First, as required under SCR 116(5), Crawford must successfully complete the State Bar examination, including the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. Second, Crawford must maintain his gambling recovery efforts, which he offered to the supreme court and the State Bar of Nevada, including attending his weekly gamblers anonymous and 12-step program meetings along with continued weekly meetings with his psychiatrist. Third, Crawford must not engage in the unauthorized practice of law or handle any client funds or trust accounts during his suspension. Additionally, as a condition of his possible reinstatement, Crawford must willingly accept to work with a mentor and continue to refrain from handling any client funds or trust accounts for a reasonable amount of time following reinstatement. The length of this mentorship requirement should be determined at any reinstatement hearing. Fourth, Crawford must make restitution for the funds misappropriated. Crawford must first make any restitution necessary to clients for amounts he misappropriated. Then, he must make restitution to the Client Security Fund for the amounts it paid to Crawford’s clients.

In Matter of Discipline of Crawford, No. 51724, 2-3 (Nev. Feb. 18, 2009)

The Reno Gazette Journal reported in May 2022

The email arrived on a Tuesday in April, sent to authorities by a frightened but fed-up former employee of longtime Southern Nevada attorney Douglas Crawford.

“There are many women who would like to come forward about sexual harassment,” the woman wrote, according to court documents obtained by the Reno Gazette Journal, “but are scared and do not know how. Some have considered filing police reports.”

That email would prompt Las Vegas police to launch an immediate criminal investigation into Crawford, 67, whose decades-long career as a lawyer in Nevada is shadowed by disciplinary suspensions and a criminal conviction stemming from a gambling addiction.

On Thursday, nearly two months after that email and one day after an undercover police operation at Crawford’s downtown law office, authorities arrested the lawyer near the Nevada-Arizona border, records show.

As of Friday, he faced five counts of open or gross lewdness, although investigators wrote in court documents filed this week that they expected more allegations to surface following his arrest, which could lead to more charges.

During their investigation, those documents show, detectives identified four alleged victims — all former employees of Crawford — and established an alleged pattern of sexual misconduct and bribery that dates back to January 2018 and “extended to clients he was representing as well.”

The allegations against Crawford range from groping to kissing his female employees “even after the victims told him to stop.”

But, according to the records, the most serious accusation by one of his employees stems from an incident in the attorney’s bedroom that allegedly occurred after the employee dropped off work documents at his home.

Investigators believe that “the charge of Sexual Assault should be considered” by prosecutors in connection with that encounter, the records show.

According to the documents, the former employees also described sexual encounters between Crawford and his clients that, on numerous occasions, they said, occurred inside his office. Those encounters were captured by security cameras, and video feeds from those cameras “were in the law office for all employees to view.”

Crawford’s behavior during an undercover police operation on Wednesday fit those descriptions, the documents said. 

That day, a female detective posing as a potential client arrived for a consultation with Crawford, and during the appointment, according to police, Crawford tried to kiss the detective on the lips.

“At the conclusion of the operation,” investigators wrote, the undercover detective said “if she did not know what she was walking into, she believed she would have been caught off guard by Crawford’s sexual advances.”

In a video posted this month to his Facebook page, Crawford announced he was hiring for several positions.

“Things are going well here at Douglas Crawford law, but we are really busy. I am in need of additional staff,” he said. “Reach out there for me, folks, find somebody that wants to work here at Douglas Crawford Law. It’s a lot of fun, and I pay well.”

Earlier this year, several of Crawford’s employees all resigned on the same day, according to the court documents. After receiving the resignations, Crawford called the women into his office and asked “if they were going to report him for sexual harassment and offered them a substantial pay raise if they didn’t quit.”

According to the former employees, Crawford would “shower them with gifts and money after touching them inappropriately or making sexual comments in what they believed was an attempt to keep them quiet about what was happening.”

“Most of the victims were young, just beginning their careers,” investigators wrote, “and they believed reporting to law enforcement may jeopardize their future career opportunities in the field of law.

Crawford has been licensed to practice law in Nevada since 1985.

His legal troubles began in 2007, when he was accused of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars of his clients’ funds to support his gambling addiction. He later pleaded guilty to two felony counts of theft, leading the State Bar of Nevada to suspend him for five years.

In 2015, records show, he was reinstated to practice law in the state by the Nevada Supreme Court after completing several requirements set by the state bar, including attending meetings for his gambling addiction, where he met one of his alleged victims in the lewdness case, police said.

Crawford is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning, court records show. As of Friday evening, he remained in Las Vegas police custody at a jail located just a half-mile from his law office.

(Mike Frisch)