How State Bars Are Taking Down Conservative Attorneys
The court said in its opinion, "We agree with the Commission that Ackel's conduct toward Randall constituted willful misconduct."
The court also noted that he'd had six prior complaints — and one they considered an aggravating factor, where he had called a female attorney during a pretrial conference "darling," and commented on her legs. In fact, the court found a second aggravating factor, "Ackel's regular use of endearing terms toward and physical contact with women."
In contrast, Judge O'Neil admitted in his opinion that a mitigating factor in Moffatt's case was the "absence of a prior disciplinary record."
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Charna Johnson
Charna Johnson is an attorney who was found to have had sex with a client, as well as channeling the dead to communicate to clients.
The bar also reported, "Johnson represented her client in a divorce proceeding and drafted a will, leaving all the assets for herself."
Despite the fact that "Five aggravating factors were found: prior disciplinary offenses, dishonest or selfish motive, submission of false evidence, refusal to acknowledge the wrongful nature of conduct and substantial experience in the practice of law," Johnson was merely suspended for one year.
Matthew Schultz
Attorney Matthew Schultz admitted he had a sexual relationship with a client, and was just suspended for one year.
Robert Standage
Government attorney Robert Standage, unlike Moffatt, actually did send sexual images and videos to an existing client. He was already on probation for a previous incident, but Judge O'Neil merely suspended him for two years. His attorney — no surprise — was Scott Rhodes.
Arizona Bar ethical rule (ER) 1.8(j) was cited in most of these cases. It says, "A lawyer shall not have sexual relations with a client unless a consensual sexual relationship existed between them when the client-lawyer relationship commenced."
Moffatt never even had an attorney-client relationship with the woman who complained about him. He merely asked her for a nude photo. Unlike most of these other attorneys, he he did not pursue a sexual relationship after hiring a client or when he was involved with them in the legal system.
Judge O'Neil allowed an attorney friend of his who had killed a woman while drinking and driving to continue practicing law in prison. This same attorney had helped O'Neil out with an unethical short sale of his mother-in-law's property, where she got to continue living in the house but got all the debt paid off.
Judge O'Neil suspended my license for six months and won't let me get it back until I've paid $101,500 — the cost of the trial against not just me but my two superiors. Extortion, anyone? The Bar brought in pricey lawyers from out of state, including one who may be impersonating a lawyer.
This is nothing more than disparate treatment. Moffatt is being targeted because he was a Republican running for office, as well as an out-of-state solo practitioner without the deep pockets of a big-firm attorney, so the Arizona bar thinks he's an easy target. The abuse needs to stop, state bars need to become voluntary associations only. Whatever happened to equal treatment under the law and justice for all?
