Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Benjamin J. Stansberry

CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJanuary 25, 2019
Docket18-1719
StatusPublished

This text of Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Benjamin J. Stansberry (Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Benjamin J. Stansberry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Benjamin J. Stansberry, (iowa 2019).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA No. 18–1719

Filed January 25, 2019

Amended January 25, 2019

IOWA SUPREME COURT ATTORNEY DISCIPLINARY BOARD,

Complainant,

vs.

BENJAMIN J. STANSBERRY,

Respondent.

On review of the report of the Iowa Supreme Court Grievance

Commission.

Grievance commission recommends a suspension of an attorney’s

license to practice law for violations of ethical rules. LICENSE

SUSPENDED.

Tara van Brederode and Amanda K. Robinson, for complainant.

Christopher A. Clausen of Clausen Law Office, Ames, for

respondent. 2

WIGGINS, Justice.

The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board (the Board)

brought a complaint against an attorney, alleging numerous violations of

the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct. The attorney stole a woman

colleague’s underpants from her home, rifled through and photographed

her undergarments in her bedroom, and rifled through female colleagues’

gym bags at the office to photograph their undergarments, all for his

personal sexual gratification. A division of the Iowa Supreme Court

Grievance Commission (the commission) found the attorney’s conduct

violated our ethical rules.

Based on the attorney’s violation of our rules, the commission

recommended we suspend his license to practice law for not less than

ninety days. On our de novo review, we find the attorney violated three

provisions of our rules. However, we disagree with the length of the

recommended suspension. We suspend the attorney’s license to practice

law indefinitely with no possibility of reinstatement for one year from the

date of filing this opinion. We also find that before reinstatement, the

attorney must provide an evaluation from a licensed healthcare

professional verifying his fitness to practice law.

I. Standard of Review.

We review attorney disciplinary proceedings de novo. Iowa Supreme

Ct. Att’y Disciplinary Bd. v. Templeton, 784 N.W.2d 761, 764 (Iowa 2010).

The Board has the burden of proving ethical misconduct of the attorney

by a convincing preponderance of the evidence. Id. This burden is less

than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but more than the preponderance

standard required in a civil case. Iowa Supreme Ct. Att’y Disciplinary Bd.

v. Conrad, 723 N.W.2d 791, 792 (Iowa 2006). While we give respectful

consideration to the commission’s findings and recommendations, they do 3

not bind us. Iowa Supreme Ct. Att’y Disciplinary Bd. v. Hoglan, 781 N.W.2d

279, 281 (Iowa 2010) (per curiam). We may impose a sanction greater or

lesser than the recommendation of the commission. Id.

II. Findings of Facts.

On this record, we make the following findings of fact. Attorney

Benjamin Stansberry received his license to practice law in Iowa in 2004.

From 2010 until his resignation in 2016, he worked as an assistant county

attorney in the Marshall County Attorney’s Office. On August 22, 2016,

Stansberry texted his colleague Jane Doe and asked if he could stop by

her home with his three-year-old son. At the time, Stansberry was in a

supervisory role at the Marshall County Attorney’s Office, and Doe was an

assistant county attorney under Stansberry’s supervision. Doe was

mowing her lawn when Stansberry arrived at her home.

Stansberry asked Doe if he could use her restroom and if Doe could

watch his sleeping child who was in a stroller while he went inside. Doe

agreed and waited outside with Stansberry’s child. Stansberry was inside

Doe’s home for about five minutes, then came outside and left with his

child. Doe continued doing yard work when she noticed a piece of cloth

lying in the middle of her driveway. She soon realized the object was a

pair of her underpants.

The same evening, Doe reported the incident to her boss, Marshall

County Attorney Jennifer Miller. An investigation ensued, and the county

attorney’s office put Stansberry on administrative leave on August 23.

When questioned by law enforcement about his actions, Stansberry denied

taking anything from Doe’s home, denied taking any photographs in Doe’s

home, and denied deleting any photographs from his mobile phone.

The investigation, however, led to a search of Stansberry’s mobile

phone. The search revealed Stansberry had deleted photographs showing 4

that he had entered Doe’s bedroom and photographed her undergarment

drawer, he had entered Doe’s office and photographed undergarments in

her gym bag, and he had entered the office of another colleague—Jane

Roe—and photographed her undergarments in her gym bag as well.

Stansberry officially resigned from the county attorney’s office on

August 26.

At the time he left the county attorney’s office, Stansberry was the

counsel of record for the state in approximately 145 cases. Miller found

Stansberry had not followed the office protocol of note-taking and saving

communications with defense attorneys in the office’s software database.

Thus, other county attorneys in the office spent considerable time trying

to assess the status of Stansberry’s cases. This resulted in dismissed

charges because of missed deadlines, upset victims, and significant

additional work for the county attorney’s office and the district court

clerk’s office.

The state charged Stansberry with theft in the fifth degree and

criminal trespass. Stansberry pled guilty to the charges and paid a $65

fine. The court also entered a no-contact order, with Doe as the protected

party.

Doe and Roe both suffered mental and emotional trauma from

Stansberry’s actions. The incident so affected Doe that she resigned from

her position at the Marshall County District Attorney’s Office, sold her

home in Marshalltown, and relocated to a different county.

On August 30, Stansberry self-reported his criminal trespass and

theft charges to the Board. The Board filed a complaint on September 27.

Responding to the complaint, Stansberry referenced the taking of the

underpants, but failed to reference the photographs law enforcement had

recovered from his mobile phone. 5

The Board charged Stansberry with four violations of the Iowa Rules

of Professional Conduct: (1) rule 32:8.4(b) (criminal conduct), (2) rule

32:8.4(c) (dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation), (3) rule

32:8.4(g) (sexual harassment or other unlawful discrimination), and (4)

rule 32:8.4(d) (conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice). At a

hearing before the commission, Stansberry did not deny his conduct but

argued he did not violate the ethical rules and asked for a public

reprimand. The Board asked the commission to recommend a minimum

sanction of license suspension for six months.

The commission found Stansberry violated all four ethical rules. It

considered Stansberry’s role as an assistant county attorney, his attempt

to “minimize, downplay, and place blame elsewhere for his actions,” and

his lack of understanding of how his actions affected the victims, as

aggravating factors. The commission found no mitigating factors. The

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Related

In Re Complaint as to the Conduct of White
815 P.2d 1257 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1991)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Hoglan
781 N.W.2d 279 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2010)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Conrad
723 N.W.2d 791 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2006)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Iversen
723 N.W.2d 806 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2006)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Powell
726 N.W.2d 397 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2007)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Templeton
784 N.W.2d 761 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2010)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Kim Marlow West
901 N.W.2d 519 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2017)
Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics & Conduct v. Bell
650 N.W.2d 648 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2002)
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Howe
706 N.W.2d 360 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2005)

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Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Benjamin J. Stansberry, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/iowa-supreme-court-attorney-disciplinary-board-v-benjamin-j-stansberry-iowa-2019.