State Supreme Court disciplines two Madison attorneys (UPDATE)

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court disciplined two Madison attorneys Friday with 30-day suspensions for their professional misconduct tied to a 2005 criminal case in Dane County.

Dane County Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey and criminal defense attorney Joseph Sommers, of Sommers Law Office, were both found to have violated ethical rules during their work on State v. Adam Raisbeck. Their suspensions take effect May 7.

The attorney’s disciplinary proceedings were handled concurrently as they were related to the same case. The proceedings, which originated in 2006, took so many years, in part, the court ruled, because Sommers’ filed a number of appeals. Both attorneys appealed initial 2006 findings by the Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Sommers disputes allegations
Sommers, admitted to practice in 1992, defended then 17-year-old Raisbeck in State v. Adam Raisbeck. The defendant was charged with homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle when a passenger in his car was killed in a 2001 rollover accident.

Raisbeck was acquitted in 2005, but during the course of representation, Sommers engaged in three counts of misconduct, according to an OLR investigation. Those included a disruptive outburst during a 2004 pretrial hearing during which Sommers alleged the judge was running a “kangaroo court.”

According to Friday’s state Supreme Court decision, the justices ruled Sommers’ conduct at the pretrial hearing, in particular, justified his impending 30-day suspension. The court found Sommers’ statements during the outburst “to be false or with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity concerning the integrity of a judge.”

In an interview Friday, Sommers, who appealed several procedural elements of the case, said he disputed the allegation that he said anything untrue during the outburst and that the OLR charge was expanded to include that claim.

“I was not accused of just outbursts, but of making statements that were recklessly false,” he said. “That was a whole different thing.”

Sommers, who ran for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2007, said he disagreed with Friday’s decision, but declined to comment further.

While the court ruled that Sommers’ appeals greatly contributed to the length of the case, it nevertheless reduced the amount he was ordered to pay for the proceedings to $47,306.28, or half of the full cost of $94,612.56.

Prosser objects to Humphrey’s sanction
Humphrey’s discipline stemmed from three counts of misconduct in State v. Adam Raisbeck, including misleading the court about the whereabouts of several evidentiary photographs relevant in the case.

The OLR had only recommended a public reprimand against Humphrey, but the justices opted for a more severe punishment because, they stated, “prosecutors must be ever mindful that they wield significant authority and must carefully guard against the temptation to let personal considerations interfere with their obligation to seek justice.”

In a concurring opinion, Justice David Prosser agreed with the facts against Humphrey, but objected to the level of discipline imposed by his colleagues, given, he said, it was not Humphrey’s fault the disciplinary proceedings dragged on.

“I believe a suspension of attorney Humphrey is unwarranted and unfair,” Prosser wrote. “And that the procedures followed in this case, especially the long delay in this court, are so irregular that they undermine confidence in the lawyer regulation system.”

Humphrey’s attorney Lester Pines, of Cullen Weston Pines & Bach LLP, Madison, said his client’s case, while connected to Sommers’, should not have been subject to delay.

“That’s really ancient history,” Pines said. “It seemed to me that however, the die was cast once they combined the two cases together for decision.”

Humphrey, who was licensed to practice in 1989, was ordered to pay $16,242.59 in costs tied to the proceedings.

Neither attorney had previously been disciplined by the court.

Humphrey Case (PDF)

Sommers Case (PDF)