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Judiciary

Missouri judge suspended for ‘grossly untimely performance of his duties’ while deflecting blame

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 5, 2025, 9:23 am CST

Updated: A Missouri judge has been suspended for a year without pay for taking years to issue some rulings while falsely telling judicial regulators and attorneys that he had delivered judgments to court clerks in unresolved cases.

The Missouri Supreme Court suspended Judge Joe Don McGaugh of Carroll County, Missouri, in a Feb. 28 opinion that ordered a higher suspension than the six months sought by the Missouri Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline.

The Missouri Independent and KTTN have coverage.

The state supreme court accepted the commission’s recommendation that McGaugh must submit to an independent mental health exam before the end of his suspension. The results will determine whether McGaugh enters a disability retirement or resumes work with continued monitoring of his treatment.

In some instances, McGaugh took as long as five to six years to issue rulings after taking cases under advisement.

“This is an egregious case of multiple instances in which a judge completely failed to timely perform his duties,” the Missouri Supreme Court said in an opinion by Judge Ginger K. Gooch.

McGaugh’s “performance issues extend well beyond his own grossly untimely performance of his duties,” Gooch said. “The uncontested allegations also establish he was untruthful with attorneys, parties and the commission on multiple occasions. He repeatedly failed to respond to court staff and, even worse, blamed court staff when he knew he failed to perform his judicial duties.”

In one instance, McGaugh told the commission that he had submitted a judgment to his law clerks and would follow up when he returns from the state fair the following week. The state supreme court noted that judicial duties are required to take precedence over personal activities.

The state supreme court identified 10 cases in which McGaugh dragged his feet on rulings. The delays “directly harmed multiple parties, among them some of Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens, including families and children; those facing financial difficulties; and those seeking orders of protection,” the state supreme court said.

In one case, an attorney told McGaugh that a divorce litigant’s mortgage was in default, and she could lose her home in foreclosure without a judgment. McGaugh took the case under advisement in September 2021 but did not rule until 2024.

McGaugh was even slower to rule in some of the other cases cited by the Missouri Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline.

In one instance, McGaugh took a motion to modify child custody and support under advisement in April 2018 but did not enter a judgment until April 2024. In another, he took two consolidated cases involving minor guardianship and child custody in May 2019 and issued a judgment in one of the cases in April 2024. The judgment in the other case was still pending at the time that the commission made its allegations.

McGaugh had admitted the allegations and offered to attend mental health counseling, as well as judge training. He had requested a suspension of only three months but later changed his request to no suspension or a suspension served under a disability retirement.

The Missouri Supreme Court said it had no authority to convert a suspension proceeding to a disability retirement, but the commission could conduct future disability proceedings.

Two dissenting judges said the state supreme court did not have constitutional authority to deviate from the six-month suspension recommended by the commission. If it was constitutionally permissible, one of the dissenters said, he would vote to remove McGaugh from office.

McGaugh was a former state lawmaker who began serving as a judge in 2017.

A clerk who answered an ABA Journal phone call to the state supreme court said McGaugh is no longer there. A contact number for McGaugh was not listed in the Missouri bar directory.

McGaugh did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email sent to a court address provided by the commission.

Updated March 5 at 1:28 p.m. to report that Judge Joe Don McGaugh of Carroll County, Missouri, did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s email.

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3. Law prof suspended over exam question, class…

First Amendment

Law prof suspended over exam question, class discussion can sue for First Amendment retaliation, 7th Circuit says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 13, 2025, 2:14 pm CDT

A federal appeals court has revived a First Amendment retaliation claim by a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law who used an “expurgated racial slur” on an exam question, leading to an investigation, required diversity training, a suspension and denial of a pay raise.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago ruled Wednesday in a lawsuit by professor Jason Kilborn, whose 2022 suit was dismissed in December 2023.

His federal suit had alleged retaliation for constitutionally protected speech, due process violations of the 14th Amendment and state law violations.

A university professor’s academic speech is entitled to qualified First Amendment protection under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the 7th Circuit ruled Wednesday in an opinion by Judge Thomas Lee Kirsch II, an appointee of President Donald Trump during his first term.

“We conclude that Kilborn has plausibly alleged that his speech is constitutionally protected and reverse the dismissal of his claim,” the appeals court said.

Because the appeals court revived the retaliation claim, it also vacated a federal judge’s refusal to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims and ordered further consideration.

The university had found that Kilborn violated the harassment section of its nondiscrimination police after an investigation that followed the controversial exam question.

The December 2020 final exam in civil procedure included a hypothetical in which a plaintiff alleged that her managers had called her a “n- – – – -” and a “b- – – -.” Kilborn’s exam included only the first letter of the word followed by underlined blanks. Some students were upset by the question.

The university then investigated allegations that Kilborn created a racially hostile environment for minorities in a class that he taught two semesters earlier by commenting on “cockroaches” and a “public lynching.”

The cockroach comment was part of a discussion on why defendants sometimes settle frivolous cases. The media only covers frivolous cases when the defendant loses, not when the defendant wins, he said. Kilborn said defendants fear that the public will learn about losses in frivolous cases, and “then all the cockroaches come out of the walls, they’re thinking, right?”

In the same discussion, Kilborn said, “I’m not subjecting my corporate bottom line to that public lynching; I’m sorry, that’s not the right word to use.”

In a different discussion on race-based traffic stops, the appeals court said, “Kilborn used an African American Vernacular English (AAVE) accent while repeating the lyrics of a Jay-Z song, which describes the pretextual stop of a young Black man (‘You was doin’ 55 in a 54.’).”

In response, the university refused to give Kilborn an across-the-board 2% merit raise and said he could not return the classroom until he completed an eight-week diversity training program.

Kilborn’s exam question, as well as other remarks investigated by the university, “address matters of public concern, notwithstanding the limited size of Kilborn’s audience,” the 7th Circuit said.

“The exam question was designed to give students experience confronting a highly charged situation that they may encounter in real-life practice and to be a continuation of the learning that occurred in the classroom,” Kirsch wrote. “The content, form and context of the exam question give no indication that it involved a matter of private concern, rather than serving broader pedagogical purposes. Kilborn’s in-class statements performed a similar function. They were designed to engage students and stimulate in-class discussion on topics of significant interest to the broader community, including frivolous litigation and pretextual police stops.”

Hat tip to Law360, which covered the decision.

See also:

UIC law prof must receive online diversity training, coaching before classroom return, letter says

Exam question wasn’t only offensive behavior of UIC law professor, according to internal investigation

Court dismisses part of UIC law prof’s civil rights lawsuit

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3. Lawyer suspended for unintentionally shooting…

Ethics

Lawyer suspended for unintentionally shooting brother during ‘horseplay’ with gun

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 6, 2025, 12:44 pm CST

A lawyer in Boca Raton, Florida, has been suspended for 10 days after he unintentionally shot his brother in the biceps during “horseplay.”

Florida lawyer Albert V. Medina’s suspension is effective Feb. 10, according to Florida Bar News, the Palm Beach Post and the Legal Profession Blog.

Medina’s conditional guilty plea for consent judgment in the ethics case, filed with the Florida Supreme Court in December, had details on the allegations.

In October 2022, Medina retrieved a gun from another room while engaged in “horseplay” with his brother, the document said. Medina pulled the trigger, thinking that the gun was unloaded. Medina’s brother was shot in his biceps. Medina and his brother said the injury was unintentional.

An arrest report obtained by BocaNewsNow said Medina had called police “frantically requesting an ambulance” and repeatedly saying he didn’t know that there was a bullet in the gun. Medina’s brother provided a sworn statement to police saying Medina got the gun as a joke, pointed it and pulled the trigger. The brother said Medina had pointed an unloaded gun at him 10 times in the past.

Medina told police that he and his brother “mess around” all the time with the gun and point it at each other as a joke. He did not realize that the gun was loaded and applied a belt as a tourniquet to his brother’s arm after the shooting.

Medina’s brother later changed his mind and said he wanted a prosecution, then changed his mind again and said he did not. The brother signed an affidavit affirming that the incident was unintentional. The criminal case was resolved in December 2023, with Medina’s plea and adjudication of guilt to the misdemeanor offense of culpable negligence causing injury to another.

Medina has been a member of the bar since 2014 and has no prior discipline. Following the accidental shooting, Medina underwent outpatient trauma therapy.

Florida lawyer David Bill Rothman represented Medina in the ethics case. He did not immediately reply to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.

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Ethics

Once-liberal lawyer said to be ‘brains’ behind 2020 election-interference scheme suspended from practice

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 6, 2024, 8:26 am CST

A New York appeals court has ordered the interim suspension of lawyer Kenneth Chesebro following his guilty plea in Georgia’s 2020 election-interference case.

Chesebro was “the brains” behind a fake-elector scheme intended to help then-President Donald Trump win the 2020 election, according to Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, who had once mentored Chesebro.

The once-liberal Chesebro had helped Tribe represent former Democratic Vice President Al Gore in litigation that led to the 2000 presidential victory for former President George W. Bush.

The fake-elector scheme involved creating fake slates of electors in six contested states that could be accepted by then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump the winner.

Chesebro pleaded guilty in Georgia in October 2023 to a single felony charge of conspiracy to file false documents. The felony constitutes a serious crime in New York, according to an Oct. 31 opinion by the Appellate Division’s Third Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court.

The appeals court said Chesebro’s guilty plea constituted a conviction, even though he could be “completely exonerated of guilt” if he successfully completes a five-year probationary period.

Publications with coverage of the suspension include NBC News, Reuters, Law360, Law.com and the New York Times.

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3. Lawyer suspended after arguing cocaine enhanced…

Ethics

Lawyer suspended after arguing cocaine enhanced his cognition

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 7, 2024, 11:55 am CST

A former public defender accused of representing a client at a November 2022 preliminary hearing while under the influence of cocaine has received a suspension of a year and a day.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court suspended Erie, Pennsylvania, lawyer Nathaniel Edmond Strasser in a Nov. 6 order, the Erie Times-News reports.

While representing himself in the disciplinary case, Strasser focused on the idea that cocaine enhanced his performance as an attorney, according to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s disciplinary board. Its Aug. 7 report and recommendation was attached to the state supreme court order.

Strasser raised the issue when cross-examining Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Chris Weber. The officer is a drug recognition expert who noted that on the day of the preliminary hearing in November 2022, Strasser was hyperactive and fidgety, his pupils were dilated, his nose was bleeding, and one of his nostrils was hairless and inflamed.

Strasser tested positive for cocaine use after Weber confronted him following the preliminary hearing. He was fired from his job as an assistant public defender.

Cocaine “increases your awareness, correct?” Strasser asked during his cross-examination of Weber at the disciplinary hearing.

“Cocaine has a positive effect on one’s cognitive abilities in low doses,” Strasser continued. “My mental awareness was at a heightened state, not a lower state.”

Weber acknowledged that Strasser “had severe focus” on the day in question but said it appeared that he was “focusing on a hundred things and couldn’t quite figure out what was important at the time.”

Strasser had also stated that he wasn’t in a 12-step program because his “problems aren’t really addiction.”

Strasser later hired a lawyer in the disciplinary case, acknowledged that he was an addict and sought substance abuse probation. The disciplinary board refused, however, to reopen the case to allow evidence of his substance abuse and treatment from years ago.

Reopening the case “would set an untenable precedent, as it would allow other similarly situated respondents to take their chances at a hearing, assess the outcome, and if they are dissatisfied, reopen the record to present evidence that was readily available to be presented but was not,” the disciplinary board said.

Strasser “failed to accept responsibility for his misconduct, lacked appreciation that his appearance at a criminal proceeding on behalf of a client while under the influence of cocaine was harmful to his client and the integrity of the legal profession, and notably failed to express any remorse,” the disciplinary board said.

A mitigating factor was that Strasser has practiced law since 2007 with no prior discipline.

Strasser’s lawyer, Philip Friedman, did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s email seeking comment. Strasser did not immediately respond to a Journal voicemail.

Lawyers and law students needing help for mental health issues or substance abuse disorders can contact their state lawyer assistance program. The ABA has published contact information here.

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3. Judge suspended without pay after indictment…

Judiciary

Judge suspended without pay after indictment for alleged fake layoffs

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 15, 2024, 9:10 am CDT

A common pleas judge in York County, Pennsylvania, has been suspended without pay following his indictment for allegedly urging four law firm employees to collect unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic while continuing to work from home.

The Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline suspended 61-year-old Judge Steven Stambaugh of Pennsylvania from the bench Oct. 9, report Law360 and the York Dispatch.

The Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania sought Stambaugh’s suspension earlier that day, citing a 31-count indictment alleging mail and wire fraud, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, according to an Oct. 9 press release that included the petition and indictment. The U.S. Department of Justice summarized the allegations in an Oct. 8 press release.

Stambaugh began service as a judge in January 2022.

The Oct. 8 indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, says beginning in March 2020, Stambaugh urged his employees to collect unemployment benefits. He allegedly promised to make up the difference between the benefits and their usual pay. The benefit payment was expanded during the pandemic.

The employees were instructed to falsely say they had been laid off in March 2020 and later to file false certifications that they did not work during preceding weeks, the indictment says.

Stambaugh’s alleged aim was to “unjustly enrich himself by using government funds to pay the employees of Stambaugh Law,” according to the indictment.

Stambaugh is also accused of omitting information about the ostensible layoffs in applications for government loans and loan forgiveness during the pandemic.

The indictment also alleges that Stambaugh tried to persuade an employee to state that any work that he performed for the firm was voluntary, if he was questioned by federal investigators. He also asked the employee to meet with him in advance of grand jury testimony to ensure that they were “on the same page,” according to the indictment. Those actions allegedly happened from April 2021 through November 2022.

Jerry Russo, Stambaugh’s lawyer, told the York Dispatch after the indictment that he and his client were evaluating the charges.

“We’re doing our own investigation of the facts,” Russo said.

Stambaugh did not immediately respond to a request for comment submitted through his firm website. Russo did not immediately comment when the ABA Journal reached him by phone.

The medical license of an Arkansas doctor with a family medicine practice has been suspended following allegations that he harassed and engaged in sexual activity with members of his staff — who were also his patients — and was walking about his medical clinic completely nude.

The Arkansas State Medical Board on Wednesday issued an emergency order of suspension pending a hearing regarding alleged violations of the Medical Practices Act against Dr. David Diffine, documents obtained by Law&Crime show.

According to the order, the board received information indicating that Diffine’s practice required immediate action regarding the “public health, safety, and welfare.”

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3. Suspended judge’s bond revoked after she…

Judiciary

Suspended judge’s bond revoked after she tests positive for cocaine

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 29, 2024, 9:47 am CDT

A suspended criminal court judge has been booked into a Memphis, Tennessee, jail after she tested positive for cocaine while awaiting a trial on charges of coercing a witness and harassment.

Judge Roy Morgan of Tennessee revoked bond for Judge A. Melissa Boyd of Shelby County, Tennessee, on Wednesday, report the Associated Press and the Commercial Appeal.

Besides facing criminal charges, Boyd has received two public reprimands since she became a judge in September 2022. She was criminally charged in December with harassment and trying to coerce or influence her former campaign manager to testify falsely, or to withhold truthful testimony, in an official proceeding. The trial is scheduled for April 24.

A lawyer for Boyd, Arthur Horne III, told Morgan on Wednesday that his client was “in a full relapse,” and that was the reason that she had not responded to an offer of a plea deal, according to the Commercial Appeal. She was released from a rehabilitation facility in late February.

Boyd was reprimanded in early May 2023 for a social media post in which the judge solicited charitable contributions while picturing herself in a judicial robe, according to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct.

During that investigation, the board received affidavits from Boyd’s former campaign manager, a woman who had a close personal relationship with Boyd, who said she discovered what appeared to be cocaine in Boyd’s home and told her to get help.

The woman also said she woke up one morning and saw Boyd sitting in a car outside her house and taking pictures. Boyd allegedly accused the campaign manager of having a “whore” inside her home and appeared to be intoxicated. Boyd also allegedly texted the woman a picture of her prior marriage license and information about her divorce.

The former campaign manager told the conduct board that Boyd had asked her to withdraw her complaint.

The former campaign manager also recorded a conversation in which Boyd admitted that she occasionally used cocaine, the judicial conduct board said. As a result of illegal drug use, Boyd received a negotiated suspension on May 22, 2023. It was released as a public reprimand Oct. 31, 2023, because Boyd did not follow through with a promise to quickly address her substance abuse problems.

Boyd has been receiving full pay since her suspension in May 2023, according to the judicial conduct board, which is recommending Boyd’s removal. The Tennessee General Assembly has scheduled a vote on the recommendation for April 4.

Boyd has been receiving about $17,000 per month during her suspension, according to the Commercial Appeal.

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3. Lawyer who wrote on ethics issues is suspended…

Ethics

Lawyer who wrote on ethics issues is suspended after he is accused of helping client hide assets

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 7, 2024, 12:49 pm CST

An Iowa lawyer has received a two-year suspension for helping a client hide money from creditors and for “furtively” inserting a provision into a custody agreement.

The Iowa Supreme Court suspended 68-year-old lawyer David L. Leitner of Iowa in a Dec. 8 opinion, according to a March 4 story by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Leitner had argued that his ethics articles had contributed to the profession and should be taken into account by ethics regulators. The Iowa Supreme Court’s Attorney Disciplinary Board had responded that the assertion is “particularly eyebrow-raising when his misconduct involves financial fraud,” according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

The disciplinary board allegations against Leitner were deemed to be admitted because he did not respond to the initial complaint.

The hidden money case involved Leitner’s representation of an Iowa seed dealer who was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 2007 for hiding assets. Leitner allegedly created a company for the seed dealer in 2013. Leitner made himself the managing member of the company, allowing the seed dealer to send part of his income to the company while hiding it from the government, which was owed about $71,000.

Although Leitner made himself the contact for the seed dealer’s corporation, neither he nor his client converted funds from anyone, the state supreme court acknowledged.

“Moreover, the record does not show that the federal government or any other creditor was actually trying to collect [the seed dealer’s] receivables,” the state supreme court said. “And so the record does not show that the federal government or any other creditor was actually deceived or otherwise hampered in its efforts to collect. At most, the record shows that [the client] and Leitner hoped to deceive any creditors who might
try to collect.”

Leitner was also accused in a second disciplinary count of “furtively” adding a stipulation to a custody agreement. An opposing lawyer had crafted a PDF of the agreement based on terms adopted in a mediation and had sent it to Leitner. Unbeknownst to the opposing lawyer, Leitner added a provision giving his client a “first right of refusal” to care for his minor child whenever his ex-wife couldn’t do so, according to the allegations.

Leitner’s client signed the modified agreement, and it was returned to the opposing counsel. The modified agreement was then filed with the district court.

Other counts in the disciplinary complaint alleged that Leitner violated rules regarding conflicts of interest, contact with represented parties and client trust accounts.

The Iowa Supreme Court cited two aggravating factors. Although Leitner acknowledged trust account issues, he had not taken responsibility “for his worst behavior,” the state supreme court said. He had also made misleading statements about reaching an agreement on a suspension.

In mitigation, Leitner had no disciplinary history. Leitner had also provided pro bono and reduced-fee representation and had accepted appointments for indigent criminal defendants.

A lawyer for Leitner, David L. Brown, did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email requesting comment. The phone number for Leitner’s law office was not taking messages.