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Ethics

Prosecutor ‘poisoned the morale’ of DA’s office with fake harassment texts, disbarment order says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 10, 2025, 9:32 am CST

A former prosecutor in Colorado should be disbarred for faking four texts that she attributed to a co-worker, including one referring to her as a “sex doll,” according to a Dec. 31 hearing board opinion.

Yujin Choi of Denver fabricated the texts in October 2022 to make it appear that the co-worker was harassing her and then “doubled down on that deceit” by intentionally altering evidence, according to the hearing board, which is part of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge.

Choi allegedly doctored cellphone records and repeatedly deleted the texts. She claimed that her cellphone stopped working when she accidentally dropped it in the bathtub and asserted that her laptop also broke when she accidentally spilled water on it.

“In our view, this narrative is not plausible,” the opinion said.

Choi “pursued a personal vendetta” against the co-worker, criminal investigator Dan Hines, “by launching an informal smear campaign” for reasons “that remain opaque to us,” the hearing board said.

The New York Times, Law360, the Denver Post and Ars Technica (via the Legal Profession Blog) have coverage.

Choi, who was admitted to practice in May 2019, can appeal the decision. She was a deputy district attorney in the Denver district attorney’s family violence unit before she was fired for the alleged misconduct.

Choi sent the four texts to herself, changing the name in her cellphone to make it appear the co-worker was the sender, the hearing board concluded. It was the second time that she had accused Hines.

The first time, in 2021, Choi claimed that Hines had made an inappropriate remark in June 2021, and that he later sent a text that she considered to be harassing. An investigation was closed as unsubstantiated. Hines was nonetheless transferred within the office and told to avoid contact with Choi.

The texts at issue in the ethics opinion surfaced in October 2022. Choi was at a bar with friends when she showed them a text. It read: “Yujin, please stop talking about what I didn’t do to our colleagues. You are using your looks against innocent people. If you want to act like a sex doll to get a sugar daddy … fine, but that will not be me.”

Choi claimed that there were three more texts, all from Hines. They read, “Don’t be stupid,” “Let’s talk,” and “I’m sorry, hope you have a nice weekend.”

By disseminating the texts to co-workers and supervisors, Choi “perpetrated a false and harmful narrative that Hines had sexually harassed her by sending her these messages,” the opinion said.

Choi said she didn’t want the matter investigated, but her supervisors felt a duty to do so and required cooperation. When Hines was confronted with the texts, he logged in to his Verizon account to provide cellphone records and offered his iPhone for investigation. There was no indication that Hines sent the texts, the hearing board said.

Official records obtained directly from Verizon indicated that Choi sent and received the fourth text message in the Hines text thread at the time that she claimed to have received it, leading the hearing board to conclude that she also sent the first three messages. The first text displayed a time stamp indicating that it was sent more than 40 minutes after Choi texted a supervisor about it.

The damage included harm to Hines’ reputation and betrayal of co-workers who advocated for her during the investigation, the decision said.

Choi “poisoned the morale of the DA’s office, contributing to an environment in which victims feared they might be disbelieved and others feared they might be wrongly accused,” the hearing board said. “Further, her actions called into question whether the evidence in the criminal cases she prosecuted was genuine,” tarnished the reputation of prosecutors, and potentially undermined the credibility of sexual harassment victims.

A counselor had diagnosed Choi with post-traumatic stress disorder and vicarious trauma caused by Choi’s emotionally taxing work in the family violence unit. Her lawyers did not immediately respond to ABA Journal emails seeking comment.

Hines told the Denver Post that he “wouldn’t wish this upon anybody,” and he was “living in hell” after Choi’s first accusation. He has sued the Denver district attorney over the handling of the investigation.

The district attorney’s office later determined that Choi’s casework was in “excellent order” with no evidence of fabrication, a spokesperson told the New York Times. The office also thinks that the investigation was properly handled, the spokesperson said.

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Judiciary

Appeals judge told state attorney how to handle resentencing while badmouthing others, texts indicate

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 12, 2024, 11:34 am CST

A Florida appeals judge who obtained a 2004 murder conviction of an alleged gang leader texted advice to the Miami-Dade, Florida, state attorney handling his resentencing while “denigrating defense attorneys and badmouthing local judges,” according to the Miami Herald.

The judge, Judge Bronwyn Miller of the Third District Court of Appeal in Florida, is a state’s witness in the resentencing of the defendant, Corey Smith, who was convicted in four murders.

Prosecutors announced Sunday they would no longer seek the death penalty in Smith’s resentencing, the Miami Herald reports in a separate story. Prosecutors attributed the decision to the passage of time and the unavailability of witnesses.

Smith was being resentenced because two capital murder convictions were based on less-than-unanimous juror votes, a practice that had been banned in a 2017 Florida law.

“Miller’s text messages show a close relationship with Miami-Dade’s elected state attorney and a low regard for the judge overseeing the case and defense attorneys in general,” the Miami Herald reports. “Though she left the state attorney’s office about 20 years ago, the texting reveals a familiarity allowing Miller to browbeat [Miami-Dade State Attorney] Fernandez Rundle and second-guess how she runs the office.”

In the text messages, sent between January and July, Miller:

  • Told Rundle that “there is a huge factual error” in a document that referred to “potential favors provided to witnesses.” Miller’s requested changes were included in a later court filing. The text was sent in April, while the Smith case was pending before the Third District Court of Appeal. The case was moved to another appeals court in July.

  • Criticized Rundle for allowing a “misogynistic pervert anti-death penalty campaigner” to work on the Smith case. The prosecutor had written a novel called Death Penalty Desired: Passion and Murder that was, in the Herald’s words, “rife with sexual violence and misogyny.” Two weeks after Miller sent her text, the prosecutor was told to leave within two months.

  • Told Rundle that two judges, including the one handling Smith’s resentencing, disliked Rundle because she didn’t back elements of a bail reform plan that they supported. Judge Andrea Wolfson “will destroy you because of the bail bond issue,” Miller wrote. Wolfson kicked two prosecutors off the resentencing case in March.

In February, Miller testified about a memo that she wrote in the murder trial that said witnesses were given favors, such as food, beverages and cigars. Defense lawyers said they were unaware of the memo. Miller testified that she didn’t know about a witness having sexual contact at the police department, as had been alleged.

The state attorney’s office released a statement to the Miami Herald on Sunday that said Miller sent “occasional and brief texts” to Rundle “in pursuit of the truth.” The statement said Rundle is “engaged in the decision-making on all major cases prosecuted by her office and specifically those involving the death penalty.”

Smith’s lawyers, Allison Miller and Craig Whisenhunt, alleged in an email to the Miami Herald that Miller “simultaneously played the parts of judge, prosecutor, witness,” and the texts call into question her ability to serve as a judge.

Miller told the Miami Herald that she can’t comment. She cited the advice of an ethics expert who said she should not make public comments because they could affect the pending proceedings.

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3. FBI investigates ‘battle of the sexes’ texts…

Law Professors

FBI investigates ‘battle of the sexes’ texts sent to female law professors

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 28, 2024, 9:45 am CST

The FBI is investigating text messages sent to female law professors, which complained that women are outperforming men in law school.

Law.com has the story, noted by Above the Law.

One of the recipients, Victoria Haneman, a professor at the Creighton University School of Law, posted a screenshot of one of the texts to X, formerly known as Twitter. She received the text Feb. 25.

The sender asked whether he has reached Haneman and then said: “Law school isn’t fair for us men anymore, women always outperform us nowadays.”

After Haneman asks for the sender’s identity, the sender said: “I admit you women have clearly won the battle of the sexes, us men are the losers,” as well as “It’s not fair” and “Will I get in trouble if I say who I am.”

Several commenters said they had also received the messages, which one described as “super creepy.”

A public safety official at Creighton told Law.com that it is working with the FBI to investigate.

Law.com reports that law professors at nine law schools have reportedly received the messages, along with a female law student and four undergraduate professors.

Two women in Michigan — one of whom is an officer with the Detroit Police Department — are accused of exchanging dozens of text messages showing that they planned and executed a home invasion in which they stole and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars in property as a means of “seeking revenge” on a man — himself a police officer — who was dating both of them simultaneously.

The text conversation allegedly happened last year between suspended officer Brianna Cabano, 29, and Colleen Compton, 30, both of whom are charged by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office with one count each of second-degree home invasion, second-degree conspiracy to commit home invasion, malicious destruction of property between $1,000 and $20,000, and larceny in a building.

Prosecutors on Wednesday presented the messages during the preliminary hearing for the two women, arguing the messages show that the duo broke into the home of then-suspended police officer Otis Funchess Jr. on April 11, 2023, the Macomb Daily reported. Funchess was reportedly suspended after allegedly pleading guilty to assaulting Cabano in 2021 and receiving a deferred sentence.

According to the report, DPD Detective Joanna Gudel testified about the contents of the alleged messages during the proceeding.

Gudel reportedly told the court that the messages began on April 8 and showed that the two women “were seeking revenge” against Funchess for sleeping with the two of them at the same time. Fuchess at the time of the alleged break-in was reportedly living with Compton but had recently engaged in sexual intercourse with Cabano.