STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. BERNHARDT

2014 OK 20, 323 P.3d 222, 2014 WL 1224290, 2014 Okla. LEXIS 20
Supreme Court of Oklahoma·Decided March 25, 2014·No. SCBD 6001·Published·Cited by 67 cases

Opinions

WINCHESTER, J.

T1 The Professional Responsibility Tribunal (Trial Panel) after a Rule 7 hearing on September 5, and October 4 of 2013 filed its Trial Panel Report giving its Findings of Fact, and Recommendations covering discipline regarding the respondent, William G. Bernhardt.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

T2 The Trial Panel reports the following findings of fact. On May 26, 2011, the respondent was arrested in Midwest City, Oklahoma, on charges in Count 1 of Driving while Under the Influence of Alcohol, Count 2 of Aggravated Attempting to Elude, and Count 3 of Unlawful Transportation of an Open Container of Alcohol. The Oklahoma County charges were originally filed as misdemeanors. On December 7, 2011, the respondent was arrested in Nebraska for Actu[224] al Physical Control of a Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol. The state of Nebraska filed a felony charge against him on December 9, 2011. That charge was amended to a misdemeanor on March 9, 2012. On August 9, 2012, the state of Nebraska entered its Journal Entry and Order fining the respondent and sentencing him to 120 days of house arrest, He was allowed to serve and completed his sentence in Oklahoma.

T3 On January 12, 2012, Counts 1 and 2 of the Oklahoma County charges were amended to felonies. On October 10, 2012, the respondent pled guilty to the two Oklahoma County felony and misdemeanor charges. He was fined on all charges and received a six-year deferred sentence on Counts 1 and 2. His deferred sentence does not end until October 10, 2018. The condition of the deferred sentence included a requirement that he wear an alcohol detecting ankle bracelet until April 13, 2013, and that he continue the out-patient follow-up treatment program with Philip Hyde, Ph.D., which he had been attending at the time of his sentencing. He must continue the program until Dr. Hyde releases him. He is also required to complete two years of supervised probation through the Oklahoma County District Attorney's office and during this period he may not possess or consume alcohol or visit establishments where the main item for sale or use is alcohol. He is required to use an interlock device on his automobile for three years, which ends in late 2015.

{4 The respondent had previous convie-tions involving aleohol. In 2007, he received misdemeanor convictions for Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol and Leaving the Seene of an Accident in connection with events occurring in Jenks, Oklahoma. He hit a mailbox. Additionally, he had a 2007 misdemeanor drunk driving conviction in Tulsa, and a misdemeanor public drunk conviction. The latter conviction resulted from his still being drunk the next morning after consuming alcohol the day before.

{5 The respondent was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar Association and his name was entered on the Roll of Attorneys in 1986. He practiced law in Tulsa from 1986 until 1996. He is presently an author who published his first book while still practicing law and subsequently published 31 books, including many legal thrillers. He has over ten million books in print, which have been translated into more than two-dozen languages. He has won many prestigious awards for his writing. He also teaches private fiction-writing seminars, teaches writing at Rose State College and legal education courses throughout the country. The trial panel reports in its October 31, 2018, report that within the past year, the respondent has taught CLEs in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Alaska, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, California, and Indiana.

T6 The respondent has not practiced law since 1996 and has no plans to return to his practice. He testified that he worked hard for his law license, is proud of it, and wants to keep it. He was not practicing law during the incidents arising from his interim suspension. Accordingly, no clients were or could have been harmed or adversely affected by his actions.

T 7 The panel found that the respondent is an alcoholic, who did not begin drinking at all until he was in his forties. At the time of the report, he was 58 years old. He was a binge drinker who did not drink every day, but had intermittent episodes of heavy drinking, "every month or two." These episodes occurred when he was alone for a period of time. He would drink at home and then leave the house after remembering "he had something to do." Regarding the 2011 Oklahoma charges, the respondent testified he had been drinking at home, left it and "hadn't gone a mile until [he] realized [he] couldn't drive." He then turned around and headed home. Even though the arresting officer's affidavit states that after the officer turned on his siren, the respondent began to swerve more aggressively around traffic, and ran a red stoplight, the respondent testified he did not see the officer until he turned onto a nearby residential street where he lives.

T8 The trial panel found that the respondent had not consumed alcohol since he was arrested in Nebraska, December 7, 2011. He chose December 10, 2011, as his sobriety date because on that date he was clearheaded.

[225] T9 The panel also found that in 2007 the respondent voluntarily put a vehicle interlock device on his automobile to safeguard against another occurrence of driving under the influence. But he testified, "it had not gotten through my head yet that I just can't drink. There is no safe level for me." Because he processes alcohol extremely slowly, he put the device on his vehicle because he would drink at night and wake up in the morning falsely believing he was fine.

T 10 The respondent entered an inpatient program for the treatment of alcoholism in 2007 after his convictions in Jenks and Tulsa. He completed a month-long program and remained sober for a little over a year. After tumultuous events in his life, he began binge drinking. He admitted himself to an eight-day inpatient program in March 2010. Still he occasionally resumed binge drinking.

{11 After his arrest in Nebraska in December 2011, the respondent entered Promises Treatment Center in Los Angeles, California, and successfully completed the 31-day inpatient program. This helped him conclude that he could not drink anymore and that has been the key to his sobriety ever since. He attended follow-up outpatient programs in the Oklahoma City area including 90 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings in 90 days, and three months at a program at the University of Oklahoma, which Dr. Hyde recommended. The Promises program had recommended Dr. Hyde to the respondent and that treatment became a condition of his Oklahoma deferred sentence. In May 2018, Dr. Hyde reported to the supervisor of the respondent's probation that he had "achieved maximum psychological improvement." The respondent continues to be under Dr. Hyde's supervision for aftercare.

{ 12 The respondent testified that he consistently attends AA meetings onee a week, and does a daily devotional, which comes from a book provided by AA and which Dr. Hyde suggested. The respondent also meditates each day, which he reports is calming and stress reducing. He learned this during inpatient therapy. He has "intensified" his teaching after Dr. Hyde and Promises suggested he "get out more" and interact rather than sitting at home all day at a laptop.

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STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. BERNHARDT, 2014 OK 20, 323 P.3d 222, 2014 WL 1224290, 2014 Okla. LEXIS 20 (Okla. 2014).

2014 OK 20 (STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. BERNHARDT) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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