Opinion ID: 1578886
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: counts fifteen and sixteen

Text: ¶ 27. The OLD complaint alleged, and Jaconi now stipulates, that in June 2001 Jaconi was appointed by the state public defender to represent R.J. in a felony criminal matter in Brown County Circuit Court. Jaconi represented R.J. Until December 12, 2001, at which time successor counsel was appointed. Jaconi did not represent R.J. at the time of the disposition of the criminal matter. ¶ 28. Between July 2001 and October 15, 2001, R.J. and/or his family members made numerous telephone calls to Jaconi attempting to discuss or learn the status of the criminal matter. All of those calls were unanswered. In addition. On one occasion Jaconi failed to be available for a prearranged conference call with R.J., and Jaconi failed to visit R.J. in prison. ¶ 29. Jaconi appeared at R.J.'s arraignment on July 16, 2001, and again at R.J.'s final pretrial conference on October 15, 2001. Prior to those appearances, R.J. had informed Jaconi that he did not want to enter into a plea agreement; rather, R.J. told Jaconi that he wanted to proceed to trial on the criminal charge. Despite that instruction, Jaconi wrote a letter to the assistant district attorney handling the criminal matter inquiring about the possibility of a plea bargain. The prosecutor responded with a proposed plea agreement but Jaconi did not inform R.J. about that correspondence. ¶ 30. At R.J.'s October 15, 2001, pretrial conference, Jaconi urged R.J. to accept the plea bargain because R.J. was already in prison. Again R.J. told Jaconi that he wanted to go to trial on the criminal charge. Despite R.J.'s repeated statements that he wanted a trial, Jaconi did not undertake through pretrial preparations. When R.J. later told Jaconi that he wanted someone else to represent him, Jaconi withdrew as counsel. ¶ 31. Based on this admitted course of conduct regarding his representation of R.J., the OLR complaint charged Jaconi with an additional two counts of professional misconduct, to which he now stipulates: COUNT FIFTEEN: By failing to prepare for a trial, and instead pursuing a plea agreement with the district attorney when his client was adamant from the outset that he wanted to go to trial, Jaconi failed to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client, in violation of SCR 20:1.3. COUNT SIXTEEN: By failing to respond to reasonable requests for information and by failing to keep R.J. Reasonably informed about the status of a matter from July 2001 to October 15, 2001, Jaconi failed to keep a client Reasonably informed about the status of a matter and promptly comply with reasonable requests for information, in violation of SCR 20:1.4(a).