Opinion ID: 1259648
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Van Alen-Meija-Castenada Matter

Text: In 1976, Deborah Van Alen, Mike Meija and Richard Castenada were jointly charged with robbery. All three defendants were represented by Attorney Peterson, an employee in petitioner's office. Van Alen pleaded guilty with a promise that she would not be called as a witness against the other two defendants. Meija and Castenada asserted inconsistent defenses and, still represented by petitioner's office, were jointly tried and convicted. Their convictions were subsequently reversed on appeal because separate counsel should have been provided for them. Before the hearing panel, Peterson testified that he did not obtain written waivers of the conflict of interest from any of the defendants. Nor did he notify the defendants as to the provisions in the contract with Madera County which required petitioner to pay for separate appointed counsel. Peterson also testified that he received no supervision from petitioner with regard to either his representation of the three clients or his handling in general of cases in which a conflict of interest might be present. [8] The review department made no finding which pertained specifically to this case. However, it made four general findings (No. 6, No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9, set forth below) which were based on petitioner's conduct in this and other cases.