High court dismisses misconduct charges against Saukville attorney

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently dismissed a disciplinary case lawyer-regulators filed against a Saukville attorney.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation charged Perry Lieuallen in 2017 with violating one attorney-ethics rule while representing a criminal defendant in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

The defendant had been charged with stalking, criminal damage to property and criminal trespassing involving the client’s girlfriend. The damage to property charge was dropped, and a jury later found the defendant guilty of stalking but not guilty of the trespass charge.

However, in 2015, a court overturned the client’s conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel from both Lieuallen and the client’s appellate lawyer.

The OLR alleged in its complaint that court’s finding of ineffective assistance of counsel on Lieuallen’s part amounted to a single violation of the attorney-ethics rule requiring lawyers to act diligently and promptly when representing clients.

Specifically, the OLR alleged that Lieuallen had broken the rule by failing to prepare a defense for the client that did not deal with the complete time frame in which the prosecution alleged the stalking had occurred.

Also, Lieuallen failed to interview, or call to the stand, more than a dozen witnesses who would have said that the defendant’s relationship with his girlfriend had been different from what the prosecution had told the jury.

The OLR had asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to publicly reprimand Lieuallen.

Lieuallen, represented by Terry Johnson of von Briesen & Roper in Milwaukee, filed an answer admitting to some of the facts in the OLR’s complaint but denying that he had broken any attorney-ethics rule and asking that the complaint be dismissed.

The court-appointed referee overseeing the case, Kim Peterson, held an evidentiary hearing in August. Peterson filed a report in November finding the OLR had not produced clear and convincing evidence showing that Lieuallen had failed to act diligently and promptly while representing his client.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted Peterson’s findings in an order filed Feb. 12, dismissing the OLR’s complaint without imposing any costs on Lieuallen. Follow @erikastrebel