Kline v. People

367 P.3d 116, 2016 WL 685125
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJanuary 5, 2016
DocketNos. 15PDJ052, 15PDJ051
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 367 P.3d 116 (Kline v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kline v. People, 367 P.3d 116, 2016 WL 685125 (Colo. 2016).

Opinion

[117]*117OPINION AND DECISION GRANTING REINSTATEMENT FROM DISABILITY INACTIVE STATUS UNDER C.R.C.P. 251.30(b) AND GRANTING REINSTATEMENT FROM DISCIPLINE UNDER C.R.C.P. 251.29(e)

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Petitioner took the oath of admission and was sworn in to the bar of the Colorado Supreme Court on May 29, 1985, under attorney registration number 14689. On July 7, 2011, Presiding Disciplinary Judge William R. Lucero ("the PDJ") approved an unopposed petition in case number 11PDJ054 to transfer Petitioner to disability inactive status, effective that same day. On June 15, 2012, Petitioner was suspended for three years as a disciplinary sanction in case number 12PDJ026.

Petitioner filed "[Petitioner's] Petition for Order of Reinstatement of License to Practice Law After Transfer to Disability Inactive Status. Pursuant to C.R.CP. 251.30 et seq. (Disability)" on July 8, 2015. That matter was assigned case number 15PDJO51. The same day, he also filed "[Petitioner's] Verified Petition for Order of Reinstatement of License to Practice Law After Suspension Pursuant to C.R.C.P. 251.29 et seq. (Discipline)." That matter was assigned case number 15PDJ052. Kim E. Ikeler, of the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel ("the People"), answered both petitions on July 10, 2015. On his own initiative, the PDJ consolidated the two cases on July 28, 2015, with both matters to be heard together in one trial setting by one hearing board. At a scheduling conference held July 29, 2015, the parties agreed that the consolidated proceedings would be treated as public, save for any [118]*118material subject to protective orders, which the PDJ pledged to. grant liberally when requested.1 Aside from material subject to protective orders, Petitioner waived any confidentiality surrounding his disability matter.,

On November 9, 2015, a Hearing Board comprising Wadi Muhaisen and Jamie J. Roth, members of the bar, and the PDJ held a combined discipline and disability reinstatement hearing. Petitioner appeared pro se, and Ikeler attended on behalf of the People. The Hearing Board heard testimony from Marc Kelly, Leslie Glover, Ellen Kline, Cherie Winnicki, Robert Winnicki, Kimberly Kline, Dietmar Schott, Dr. Gregory Kirk, Arthur Patterson, and Petitioner, The PDJ admitted stipulated exhibits 1-5.

At the hearing, the People acknowledged that no significant evidence suggests that Petitioner will relapse. While they questioned whether a renaissance has taken place in other aspects of his character, they declined to take any position as to whether Petitioner should be reinstated to the practice of law.

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

The findings of fact here, aside from that portion describing Petitioner's disciplinary record, are drawn from testimony offered at the reinstatement hearing, where not otherwise noted.

Events Leading to Petitioner's Suspension

Petitioner was born into a large family headed by an alcoholic father and a mother who, in her own words, "enabled" her husband's dnnkmg In high school, Petitioner drank heavily, up to eight beers in a night. His alcohol use varied in college and, later, when he attended law school in San Diego. He earned his J.D. in 1984, was admitted to the bar in 1985, and pursued 'a career in civil litigation, knowing that he wanted to be a solo practitioner. He established his own firm in Longmont, hired a staff, and started a family with his ex-mfe, Kimberly Kline, who. also, worked for him as a paralegal.

Petitioner described his astonishment, once he struck out on his own, at the tremendous amount of freedom he experienced in so many areas of his life. He was his own boss, he called his own shots, and he did .as he saw fit, a practice that he carried to an "illogical and unethical extreme." Despite this new-found freedom, Petitioner never was comfortable in his own skm and began to feel hemmed in by an internal compulsion to project an appearance of success,. His friend and fellow lawyer Arthur Patterson described him as the guy who wanted "the fanciest car and the biggest office." Kimberly Kline noted that theirs was a lifestyle designed to "keep[] up with the Joneses." Without exception, his family members-and at least two of his close friends-deseribed Petitioner before 2011 in pejorative terms: as lacking humility, self-absorbed, .standoffish, caustic, arrogant, and more concerned about how things looked than with "the stuff on the inside." °

Petltmner explained - that though he yearned to achieve success, he could not describe specifically what would constitute its attainment, and he lost direction and perspective in the hunt for ever more money. "I had everything in the world going for me," he recalled, including a lovely wife, two kids, and a beautiful home, "but it wasn't enough, and I don't know if I ever could have found it." There was something elusive he needed, he said, but he could not "put his finger" on what that thing was. To avoid addressing this void in a constructive way, Petitioner turned to alcohol, which "blur[red]" the feeling and "took] care of" the compulsion, at least temporarily.

Petitioner's life thus proceeded along two diverging but linked tracks; on the one, he continued to earn more money, to achieve more material success, and to take on larger financial investments; on the other, he imbibed greater amounts of alcohol with more frequency. Petitioner built a wine cellar and bar in his basement and installed a wet bar in his law office, using alcohol to "manage anxiety and assuage dissatisfactions in his marriage," according to Dr. Gregory Kirk, an expert in add1c§1on psychiatry.

[119]*119Things seemed to come to a head after the financial collapse in 2008. Petitioner had sunk more than one million dollars into a lakeside home, and had invested sizably in the development of several commercial properties, one of which housed his. office suite,. After the meltdown, Petitioner's tenants could not make rent and moved out; he was left facing the prospect of defaulting on multiple loans, His law practice faltered, and he worried about making payroll for his associates. These stressors, along with marital issues, contributed to his increased dependence on aleohol.

Petitioner began to spiral out of control. As his ex-wife testified, he drank "for good things, for bad thmgs for everyday average things." He drank himself "into a stupor every night," remembered Robert Winnicki, husband of Cherie. Winnicki, one of Petitioner's sisters. Petitioner himself recalled using alcohol "as. a medicinal means of achieving a normal existence," resorting to the bottle as a cure for hangovers. Petitioner first moved into a bedroom in his basement, near the bar he had installed, and later moved out of his house and into the Winnickis'. He drank more at work, And he began to deposit client money directly into his operating account, using that money for his own purposes. During that time Petitioner would often wonder, "what is it going to take to stop?," knowing that nothing save a DUI, an accident, or a medical event would get his attention and compel him to reexamine his behavior.

His body gave out before he hurt someone else. On the morning of June 25, 2011, Petitioner woke up and walked to the kitchen,. While staring into the refrigerator, he experienced an unexpected sense of warmth. He looked down to find blood streaming down his legs. In the bathroom, he filled a toilet with blood, and then he soaked through towel after towel.

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367 P.3d 116, 2016 WL 685125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kline-v-people-colo-2016.