Opinion ID: 1770265
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of the Factual Basis

Text: The threshold issue is the admissibility in this disciplinary proceeding of the statement of factual basis filed by the prosecutor at respondent's plea of nolo contendere in the criminal proceeding. In a disciplinary proceeding based on conviction of a crime, evidence of the conviction constitutes conclusive evidence of the attorney's guilt of the charged offense. The only issue thereafter is whether the crime warrants discipline and, if so, the extent thereof. La.Sup.Ct.R. XIX, § 19E. The attorney may offer any mitigating evidence which is not inconsistent with guilt of the essential elements of the crime. Id. By the same token, the disciplinary counsel may offer any evidence of aggravating circumstances attendant to the essential elements of the crime, but this evidence must be admissible under the rules of evidence. La.Sup.Ct.R. XIX, § 18B. The statement of factual basis in this case is the report of a governmental investigation into the omission of assets from an estate tax return, and the document does not give the sources of the information developed in the investigation. Nevertheless, as observed by the concurring member of the Disciplinary Board, the admission of the statement of factual basis makes little difference in this case. The conviction itself established that respondent intentionally omitted an asset from the estate tax return. The indictment to which respondent entered the plea charged him alternatively with intentionally omitting the promissory notes or with intentionally omitting the corporate stock. Respondent resisted the admission of the statement of factual basis principally because the prosecutor's statement focused on the omission of the stock and contained an allegedly excessive valuation of the stock. [6] While the value of the omitted asset may be very significant in the civil tax assessment litigation, the valuation was of little importance in this case unless the disciplinary counsel wanted to prove as an aggravating circumstance that the omission was of a large asset or unless respondent wanted to prove as a mitigating circumstance that the omission was of a relatively small asset. For purposes of this disciplinary proceeding, the value of the excluded asset was at least $250,000, since that was the value chosen by respondent in the sale to his father shortly before his wife's death. If the sale did in fact occur and was valid, then the notes clearly constituted an asset of the succession and should have been included in the estate tax return in that amount. Since neither the Hearing Committee nor the Disciplinary Board utilized any information contained in the statement of factual basis other than the value of the omitted asset, any error in the admission of that document was harmless.