Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Baumgartner

100 Ohio St. 3d 41
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 2003
DocketNo. 2002-2237
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 100 Ohio St. 3d 41 (Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Baumgartner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Baumgartner, 100 Ohio St. 3d 41 (Ohio 2003).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} Respondent, Elsebeth M. Baumgartner of Oak Harbor, Ohio, Attorney Registration No. 0064583, was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1995. In an amended complaint filed on March 1, 2002, relator, Disciplinary Counsel, charged respondent with professional misconduct, including allegations that she made numerous unfounded accusations of criminal and unethical activity against private individuals and public officials and also compromised her clients’ interests. Respondent answered, denying any misconduct, but admitting that she had accused various judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and members of the local school system, among others, of wrongdoing to expose what she considered to be public corruption. On February 1, 2002, we suspended respondent’s license to practice law on an interim remedial basis based on substantial evidence that she had violated the Code of Professional Responsibility and posed a threat of serious harm to the public. Disciplinary Counsel v. Baumgartner (2002), 94 Ohio St.3d 1447, 762 N.E.2d 366.1 See Gov.Bar R. V(5a).

2} The Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline appointed a three-member panel to hear the cause and make findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a recommendation. Prior to the hearing, the parties conducted extensive discovery, filed numerous motions, and participated in four prehearing conferences at which the panel chairperson presided. Respondent was represented by counsel during these proceedings until August 2002, when she discharged her attorney and the chairperson granted the attorney leave to withdraw.

{¶ 3} Proceeding on her own behalf, respondent submitted her witness list in anticipation of the panel hearing. The list identified over 250 witnesses. Relator [42]*42filed a motion to limit the number of respondent’s witnesses and also a motion that respondent submit to a psychological examination, both of which the chairperson considered at the final prehearing conference. After considerable review, the chairperson determined that the majority of respondent’s witnesses had no direct knowledge even arguably relevant to the disciplinary proceeding; however, he granted respondent authority to obtain subpoenas for over 70 of these witnesses, providing that she filed a proper praecipe. The chairperson took the psychiatric examination request under advisement pending the receipt of records from respondent’s treating psychologist, which respondent agreed at that time to make available.

{¶ 4} Respondent thereafter appeared at the panel hearing, but only briefly and only after she had just filed a federal lawsuit against the panel chairman, Disciplinary Counsel in his individual capacity, and various others she claimed to be involved in the extensive public corruption identified in her answer to the amended complaint.2 Arriving late, respondent informed the panel of her federal complaint, but refused to sit at counsel table. Shortly thereafter, respondent turned her back to the panel and abruptly left the hearing room. The hearing proceeded in her absence.

{¶ 5} The events underlying the charged misconduct began in 1999 after two incidents in which respondent believed that her daughter had been mistreated while a member of the Oak Harbor High School track and field team. In February of that year, the daughter had an argument with one of the school’s coaches about using the weight room. In the spring of 1999, another coach replaced respondent’s daughter with a teammate in a track relay event. Respondent reacted by publicly accusing the coach involved in the weight room argument of having committed criminal acts during the incident, including what respondent would later refer to as a physical and psychological assault of her daughter.

{¶ 6} With respect to Count One of the complaint, the evidence shows that respondent asserted these charges at a meeting of the Benton Carroll Salem Board of Education, on which her husband serves. In response, the superintendent of the school district duly reported the allegations to local law enforcement. The Oak Harbor Police Chief turned over the results of his investigation to the Ottawa County Prosecutor, who agreed with the chief that there was no evidence to warrant formal charges or prosecution. Dissatisfied with this decision, respondent swore out a series of affidavits and, on November 21, 2000, filed them in the [43]*43Ottawa County Municipal Court along with her own “citizen’s” complaint. See Crim.R. 4(A)(1) (complaint based on credible affidavit may present probable cause for summons or arrest warrant).

{¶ 7} Respondent’s complaint and affidavits accused eleven individuals — the Ottawa County Prosecutor, the Oak Harbor and Put-in-Bay chiefs of police, the school superintendent and his predecessor, and the six members of the board of education — of various felony and misdemeanor crimes, including intimidation, dereliction of duty, theft in office, obstructing justice, retaliation, tampering with evidence, assault, menace by stalking, and falsification. A special prosecutor, whose appointment respondent unjustifiably alleged to be the result of an unlawful conspiracy, investigated respondent’s charges but found no credible evidence to support them. In fact, various officials have repeatedly asked respondent for evidence to substantiate her charges; however, she has never provided any proof other than her own sworn statements, and these have been categorically denied by those respondent accused, most significantly at the panel hearing under oath.3 Thus, the special prosecutor has not filed charges relating to any of respondent’s allegations, nor have federal law enforcement authorities to which respondent also reported her charges.

{¶ 8} With respect to Counts Two, Three, Five, Seven, and Eight, relator proved that respondent has also made countless other accusations for which she has no credible proof. In correspondence to various individuals commencing with a January 5, 2001 letter to the Board of Commissioners of Ottawa County, respondent asserted on her daughter’s, husband’s, or her own behalf a barrage of corruption and conspiracy charges, among other crimes, against area judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, attorneys, school board members, and others, many of whom also testified to the falsity of these charges during the panel hearing. Respondent sent one such letter to a juvenile court judge before whom a client’s case was pending and with whom she also improperly discussed the merits of the client’s case.

{¶ 9} Moreover, respondent made similar false allegations in documents she either filed or attempted to file in court, always using her status as an attorney and at times compromising the cases of her clients, to further what can only be described as a vendetta. Respondent has also made disparaging and unfounded personal attacks against judges, prosecutors, and others in the community and often filed lawsuits, without any discernible cause, against individuals she had already charged with criminal or unethical activity. In July 2002, respondent was convicted of falsification for making such public accusations of impropriety.

[44]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Disciplinary Counsel v. Stafford
2012 Ohio 909 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2012)
Hemphill v. Dayton
2011 Ohio 1613 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2011)
Disciplinary Counsel v. Pullins
2010 Ohio 6241 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2010)
Disciplinary Counsel v. Frost
2009 Ohio 2870 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Baumgartner, Ot-06-046 (3-7-2008)
2008 Ohio 971 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
in re:E. Baumgartner v.
123 F. App'x 200 (Sixth Circuit, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 Ohio St. 3d 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/office-of-disciplinary-counsel-v-baumgartner-ohio-2003.