In Re Cleaver-Bascombe

986 A.2d 1191, 2010 D.C. App. LEXIS 4, 2010 WL 114004
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 14, 2010
Docket06-BG-858
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 986 A.2d 1191 (In Re Cleaver-Bascombe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Cleaver-Bascombe, 986 A.2d 1191, 2010 D.C. App. LEXIS 4, 2010 WL 114004 (D.C. 2010).

Opinions

PER CURIAM:

The Board on Professional Responsibility (Board) has filed with this court a Supplemental Report and Recommendation that respondent, Karen P. Cleaver-Bas-combe, be suspended from the practice of law for two (2) years with a requirement that she prove fitness before reinstatement for conduct violating four disciplinary rules, namely: Rule 1.5(a) (charging an unreasonable fee); Rule 3.3(a)(1) (making a false statement of material fact to a tribunal); Rule 8.4(c) (engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation); and Rule 8.4(d) (engaging in conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice). Cleaver-Bascombe excepts to the Board’s supplemental report and recommendation, con[1193]*1193tending that the record does not support the Board’s findings or the recommended sanction. Alternatively, Cleaver-Bas-combe requests that the court impose as a sanction a thirty-day suspension and suspend its execution for a period of six months with the requirement that she have a practice monitor and complete a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course on record-keeping. We adopt the Board’s findings in its supplemental report but reject its recommended sanction. We order that Karen P. Cleaver-Baseombe be disbarred.

I.

Factual and Procedural Background

This case returns to the court following remand proceedings pursuant to this court’s opinion and remand order in In re Karen P. Cleaver-Bascombe, 892 A.2d 396 (D.C.2006) (Cleaver-Bascombe I).1 The case stems from findings that respondent, an attorney appointed to represent an indigent criminal defendant under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), D.C.Code §§ 11-2601 et seq. (2001) in an extradition case, submitted a fraudulent voucher to the court seeking compensation for services that she knew she had not rendered. In Cleaver-Baseombe I, we considered the Board’s initial report in which the Board adopted essentially the Hearing Committee’s findings, concluded that respondent’s conduct violated four disciplinary rules (Rules 1.5(a), 3.3(a)(1) and 8.4(c), and 8.4(d)) and recommended that respondent be suspended from the practice of law for ninety days, with reinstatement conditioned upon her successful completion of a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course on time and record-keeping, while Bar Counsel urged a one-year suspension with reinstatement conditioned upon proof of fitness to practice law. In making its original recommendation, the Board had declined to find that respondent’s misconduct was aggravated by her testimony at the disciplinary hearing in which she supported the validity of the claimed services on the voucher. The Board “agree[d] with Respondent that the [Hearing] Committee’s findings do not support a conclusion that [Respondent] presented false evidence or testimony.” Id. at 399. In Cleaver-Baseombe I, the court identified a tension between the Board’s findings in its initial report that required resolution by the Board before determining the appropriate sanction for the proven violations.2 Id. at 399. Specifically, the court stated that “[b]eeause Respondent swore to essentially the same propositions in her voucher and in her testimony, ... the Board’s finding that the voucher was intentionally false and patently fraudulent is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with its later treatment of Respondent’s testimony as not [1194]*1194having been proved to be deliberately false.” Id. Therefore, the court remanded the case to the Board for revised findings and a new recommendation consistent with the court’s opinion. Id. at 413.3

The Board explained in its supplemental report that it did not return the matter to the Hearing Committee on remand because the court did not direct it to do so, and neither Bar Counsel nor respondent requested it in their briefs on remand. Moreover, the Board expressed the view that even if the case were remanded to the Hearing Committee, it could not reasonably expect it to reconstruct accurately its credibility impressions after such an extended lapse of time. The Board stated that “[i]n these circumstances, the only course reasonably available to us is to review the Committee’s findings anew with a view to identifying the conduct that we are confident at this juncture can be said to have been proved by clear and convincing evidence.”4 Following briefing by the parties on remand and upon further review, the Board issued its supplemental report in which it adhered to its prior finding that respondent submitted for payment a fraudulent voucher seeking compensation for services she knew that she had not rendered and made the additional finding that respondent exacerbated her misconduct in sworn testimony when she “defended her voucher as written and insisted that it fairly reflected the services she rendered.” The Board concluded as a matter of law that respondent perjured herself in her testimony before the Hearing Committee. Therefore, the Board revised its recommended sanction to a suspension of two years with the requirement that respondent prove fitness before reinstatement.5

II.

A. Standard of Review

When considering a Report and Recommendation from the Board on Professional Responsibility, this court must “accept the findings of fact made by the Board unless they are unsupported by substantial evidence of record, and shall adopt the recommended disposition of the Board unless to do so would foster a tendency toward inconsistent dispositions for comparable conduct or would otherwise be unwarranted.” D.C. Bar R. XI, § 9(h) (2006); accord, In re Elgin, 918 A.2d 362, 373 (D.C.2007); In re Berryman, 764 A.2d 760, 766 (D.C.2000). Similarly, “the Board is obliged to accept the hearing committee’s factual findings if those findings are supported by substantial evidence in the record, viewed as a whole.” Elgin, supra, 918 A.2d at 373 (quoting Berryman, supra, 764 A.2d at 766). “Generally speaking, if the Board’s recommended sanction falls within a wide range of acceptable outcomes, it will be adopted and imposed.” In re Hallmark, 831 A.2d 366, 371 (D.C.2003) (other citations and quotations omitted).

As we said in In re Goffe:

[1195]*1195Ultimately, however, the system of attorney discipline, including the imposition of sanctions, is the responsibility and duty of this court. In re Hutchinson, 534 A.2d [919,] 924 [ (D.C.1987) ]. “When the court disagrees with the Board as to the seriousness of the offense or the demands of consistency, however, the Board’s recommendations are accordingly granted less weight.” In re Kennedy, 542 A.2d 1225, 1228 (D.C.1988) (citing In re Reback, 513 A.2d 226, 230-31 (D.C.1986) (en banc)). More specifically, decisions of this court can serve as overall guidelines to assist in defining the permissible range of sanctions.

In re Goffe, 641 A.2d 458

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
986 A.2d 1191, 2010 D.C. App. LEXIS 4, 2010 WL 114004, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-cleaver-bascombe-dc-2010.