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Muslim leader to fight OLR charges

By: Eric Heisig//October 24, 2014//

Muslim leader to fight OLR charges

By: Eric Heisig//October 24, 2014//

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The head of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, who is facing a public reprimand for allegedly having sex with a female client, said he will fight the case.

Othman Atta faces eight counts of misconduct in a compliant filed by the Office of Lawyer Regulation in September. It alleges that Atta, while representing a woman in a divorce proceeding, had a relationship with the woman. And though the pair were in a relationship, he continued to represent her and did not disclose it to the court or opposing counsel in the divorce case, the OLR alleges.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to publicly reprimand him.

But Atta, who graduated from Marquette Law School in 1994, maintains that the client is lying. In an Oct. 14 response to the OLR, he denied any allegations that he ever had sex with his client.

Instead, as he previously said, his client wanted to have a relationship. Atta, who is married, said he rebuffed her advances and that she filed the complaint with the OLR as retaliation.

“She is trying to use OLR to do any kind of damage she can to me,” Atta said.

He said he plans to hire an attorney to represent himself in front of the Supreme Court.

According to the OLR’s complaint, the relationship started in 2010 and continued into 2013, as did his representation of the woman. The pair frequently talked on the phone, according to the complaint, “with a majority of the calls being lengthy and early in the morning after midnight,” and they spent a lot of time together.

Eventually, the woman’s husband’s attorney, Thomas Napierala, found out about the relationship through his daughter and others in the Muslim community. Napierala asked Atta about the relationship, and Atta denied it, according to the complaint. He also denied it in a hearing in front of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Frederick Rosa, calling the accusations “despicable.” Rosa granted a stipulated dismissal and ordered Atta to file paperwork in the case in 30 days.

By that time, though, Atta and the woman’s alleged relationship deteriorated, and by May 2013 he had yet to file the paperwork. The woman inquired and Atta did not respond. He finally sent the proposed paperwork to the woman on July 1, 2013, according to the complaint.

Rosa signed the paperwork July 16, 2013. In August 2013, the woman filed a complaint with the OLR.

In his response, Atta admitted to filing the paperwork late. However, he denied any relationship and said between the time of the hearing and the paperwork being filed, he was trying to avoid the woman. He said he would only email her about her case.

He also said there were other allegations the woman included that the OLR did not pursue.

According to court filings, a scheduling order for the case is due by early next month.

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