The Sanction
by Charles Parsons
|
Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3 |
part 2
While we were huddled together in the Star Chamber, Chance’s accuser, Hal Mason, opened the door. He was accompanied by a thin, thirtyish male with a sallow complexion. Martin had forewarned me that Hal had hired this man, an investigator named Harry Lee. The assistant bar counsel prosecuting this case, a Ms. Stephanie Hancock, had informed Martin that Lee possessed an incriminating video. I’d looked up Mr. Lee’s bio online. It stated that he worked mostly with divorce lawyers. Harold and Mr. Lee took seats across the table from Martin and Chance.
Martin leaned toward Mason and mused, “Strange how we always seem to find ourselves on opposite sides, isn’t it, Hal?”
Hal’s upper lip curled. “Chance seducing my wife makes this one a little different,” he said. “For me, this is personal.”
Hal’s acidic comment achieved its intended awkward silence. As a defense lawyer, Hal had clashed in courtrooms with both Martin and Chance. Yet when the case ended, they would retire to a nearby tavern to talk about the trial. I’d seen them spar jovially over what evidence had tipped the jury verdict.
Now Hal sneered down the table at Chance. “My slut wife left a clear trail to your love nest, sir,” he said. “She paid for your hideaway with my credit card.”
Hal’s reproach annoyed me. “Chance had nothing to do with setting up that apartment.” Everyone around the table stared at me. “Mimi wanted a secure place where she could talk privately. She didn’t want other clients in our waiting room listening in.”
Hal laughed. “You can’t mean that seriously. It was a love nest.”
Martin raised his palms. “Gentlemen, the panel will be here any moment. Let’s not poison these proceedings.”
Moments later, Mimi hobbled into the room on her cane. She looked straight ahead as she rounded the table and passed several empty chairs. The room was icily silent as she settled into a chair at the far end of the table. She wore an ivory Chanel suit; her blonde hair was carefully coiffed.
Hal scoffed at her. “I see you got all dressed up for the execution.”
Mimi’s eyes narrowed. “I came here knowing you’d act like the turd you are,” she snapped. “You’re pushing this only because you want a portion of that hotel settlement check.”
When the conference room door opened again, three middle-aged women in business dress strode in. One lady, who introduced herself as Paula Draper, sat down at the head of the table. She was a thin wiry woman in a dark pants suit. Her cheeks had a pinkish rouge. Her dark hair was pulled tightly against her skull. Ms. Draper announced that she would serve as moderator. The two other women were the panel the Bar Counsel selected to decide Mr. Mason’s complaint.
Martin looked at each woman. “Do you think you can judge this male member of the bar impartially?”
Each nodded affirmatively.
The assistant bar counsel, Stephanie Hancock, entered and sat down beside Hal Mason. She explained she was the assistant bar counsel prosecuting the complaint. Draper directed Ms. Hancock to give her opening statement. Hancock remained seated as she spoke.
“We are here today to present evidence in In Re: Robert J. Chance. a member of the District of Columbia Bar and bound by its Rules of Professional Conduct. Mr. Mason’s complainant alleges that Mr. Chance, while representing his wife breached his fiduciary duty by engaging in intimate sexual relations in violation of Rule 1.7 of the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct. The complaint alleges that Mr. Chance exploited his superior position as her counsellor, which is tantamount to coercing her to engage in carnal intimacy. The complaint further alleges that the respondent’s conduct objectively impaired his judgment as her lawyer, and shattered the sanctity of attorney-client privilege.”
Looking around the table, I noticed that all three panel members were scribbling notes. Ms. Hancock took a deep breath before continuing. She boasted that she would present unimpeachable evidence of Chance’s wrongdoing and would request a severe sanction.
In his opening statement, Martin made direct eye contact with each seated panel member. “This is a case about a husband and wife fighting over the division of a $1.3 million settlement that Mr. Chance engineered for his client. Harold purports to want revenge against the lawyer who had an extramarital affair with his wife. However, in his divorce action against his wife, Harold claims entitlement to a portion of the settlement Mr. Chance obtained for her. Hal claims that the settlement proceeds are common marital property and should be divided between him and his wife.”
Martin asserted that it was Mimi who’d originated private “brainstorming” sessions in an apartment she’d rented near Chance’s office. As Martin spoke, Chance sat wearily, visibly struggling to hold his head steady. Both his eyes had puffy dark pockets.
Martin continued. “There was nothing Mrs. Mason would not do to prevail against the Marabella Hotel. As her lawyer, Mr. Chance fully delivered for his client.”
I noticed that Ms. Draper cocked an eyebrow as Martin concluded his argument by asserting that Chance wasn’t a skilled player in matters of the flesh.
After Martin finished his opening statement, Ms. Hancock announced that Harry Lee would be her first witness. As Mr. Lee set up multiple video monitors in the room, Ms. Hancock explained that she was calling him early in the case to accommodate his need to depart for another urgent assignment. As Lee strung wires to his monitors, Martin leaned over and quietly joked that Lee probably had another porn movie he needed to film.
When sworn as a witness, Lee testified that he’d been retained by Harold Mason to conduct surveillance on his wife. Lee stated he’d discovered that Mimi had rented an apartment one block from Chance’s office. He’d installed a hidden camera to record events occurring there.
Ms. Hancock began her direct examination. “How did you arrange to film Mrs. Mason and Attorney Chance in flagrante delicto?”
“I found a staffer at the apartment building willing to unlock the apartment door for me. Once inside, I mounted a battery-powered mini-camera with a fisheye lens near the light fixture over the bed.” Ms. Hancock marked a video cassette as Exhibit No. 1. She explained that the audio had been deleted and requested to show the panel the soundless video.
The lights of the room were darkened. Mr. Lee narrated the film, a stunningly clear black and white video that showed Mimi with multiple tan lines across her nude body lying face down on the bed. She was not wearing her prosthesis. The couple on film, unmistakably Chance and Mimi, first embraced then merged into the missionary position of sexual intercourse directly beneath the hidden camera. The Hearing Room was deathly quiet as the bodies silently pressed together. The camera caught Mimi’s ivory teeth smiling brightly as she and Chance kissed passionately.
The film ran slightly less than two minutes. When the lights returned, I saw that Chance had pressed his face into his open palms. At the end of the table, Mimi glared at her husband.
Martin did not object when Ms. Hancock offered the video into evidence. Martin declined to cross-examine the witness, and Mr. Lee hastily loaded his recording equipment into storage trunks and left.
Ms. Hancock next called Harold Mason. Mason testified that he’d been a member of the Bar for thirty-six years and married to Mimi for twenty-two years. He stated that they were living separately the evening she’d traveled to the Marabella Hotel.
“Mimi called and asked if I wanted to accompany her to some swimsuit contest at the new Marabella. I told her I had a trial the next day.” he said. “She insisted on going. Later that night, she telephoned from the emergency room with a broken ankle. She wanted to return to our family home. I told her to take a cab from the hospital.”
Hal slid a flat palm over his balding scalp. “My wife has always enjoyed an affluent, privileged family life. Until this hotel case, it’d been my pleasure to pamper her.”
I looked around the table, but the panel members’ eyes betrayed no reaction to Mason’s words.
Hal smirked down the table at his wife. “Mimi was obsessed with maintaining her body. When the gangrene set in, and her right ankle had to be amputated, she cried nonstop. It was pitiful watching her adjust to that new stainless-steel foot. She craved justice against that hotel.” Hal paused to catch his breath.
“I went to the F Street entrance of the Marabella Hotel and looked at the step. I told her to forget a negligence claim. After weeks of her hysteria, I finally suggested she consult Chance. He’s a lawyer who delights in taking doubtful cases with bad injuries.”
Hal placed his elbows on the table. “When Chance took her case, I was initially relieved. I’d recently lost a big client in my law practice and Mimi wasn’t make my life miserable any more with her complaining. Of course, I didn’t know that Chance had cravings for her.”
“Did you observe any intimacy between your wife and Mr. Chance after she retained him?” Ms. Hancock inquired.
“I probably missed a lot of clues. My billable hours were falling sharply from lost business. Mimi and I spoke most afternoons by phone. I remember she was excited when Chance obtained some surveillance footage from the hotel.”
“Were you in contact with Chance as he prosecuted the case?”
“No, everything I learned about the litigation came from Mimi. And she was consumed by Chance’s commitment.”
“When did you first suspect that anything prurient was going on between your wife and Mr. Chance?”
“When I noticed on our bank statement that she’d rented a studio apartment near the Chance law office. That’s when I hired Harry Lee. When I saw his film, I felt compelled to file a complaint with the Bar Counsel.”
“Thank you, Mr. Mason,” Ms. Hancock said. “I have no further questions.”
Martin began his cross examination. “Mr. Mason when did you learn that Mr. Chance settled your wife’s claim against the Marabella Hotel for $1.3 million?”
“I don’t recall.”
“You filed your Bar complaint after you learned he’d settled her case, didn’t you?”
“Objection!’ Ms. Hancock said. “The issue is solely whether Mr. Chance breached the Code of Professional Responsibility. The date of filing is irrelevant.”
Martin’s gaze swept over the panel. “It’s highly relevant. Mr. Mason has implied he filed this complaint because he felt duty-bound to report unethical conduct. However, he first demanded Mr. Chance pay him a portion of his fee from the Marabella settlement or he would file a Bar complaint against him.”
Ms. Draper and the other two panel members left the room to conduct a brief recess to discuss the admissibility of Martin’s evidence proffer. When they returned, Ms. Draper asked Martin, “How is evidence of Mr. Mason’s purported motivation for filing this complaint relevant to the principal issue of whether Mr. Chance breached his fiduciary duty?”
Martin rose as he spoke. “At some point, if you find there was misconduct by Mr. Chance, your task will be to fashion a sanction as punishment. You’ll need to consider whether the lessons he learned from the unique pressures imposed on him in this case will likely discourage future misconduct. This requires you to consider all the aggravating and mitigating factors in this proceeding. You must also consider what comparable sanctions have been imposed in similar circumstances.”
Ms. Draper’s face furrowed. “So it’s your thesis that although Mr. Chance violated the ethics rules, he nevertheless redeemed himself by competently obtaining a good legal result for his client. Is that correct?”
Martin shrugged. “It’s relevant, just as Mr. Mason’s ulterior motive for filing this complaint is likewise relevant.”
Copyright © 2024 by Charles Parsons
