Opinion ID: 2521377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Garcia's Inquiry into the Facts

Text: As described in section II of this opinion, Garcia extensively investigated the facts of this case. Either directly or through an investigator, Garcia reviewed the intake file, spoke several times with Trupp and the mother of the child, spoke with an administrator at the social security office, reviewed the current and previous child support orders, reviewed the records of Trupp's payments, and independently calculated Trupp's arrearages. In fact, the PDJ, in a written decision, found that Garcia examined the contents of [Trupp's] file, obtained and reviewed substantial portions of the underlying paternity case, interviewed persons having relevant information, including Trupp, ... researched case law and read In re Marriage of Wright. After completing this research and performing her own calculations with the investigator, Garcia concluded that Trupp was indeed behind in his child support payments. She also knew that Trupp's child was receiving monthly social security payments of approximately $580, and that Trupp believed that these payments would eventually cover his child support obligations. However, she also discovered that Trupp had taken no legal action to apply those payments to his child support obligations. At the immediate suspension hearing, Trupp conceded all of these points. At the disciplinary hearing, however, Trupp changed his argument and claimed that there had been no arrearage since 1996. Given that Trupp himself had previously conceded arrearages in varying amounts, and no one involved could definitively determine when and by how much Trupp was behind, the fact that the parties disagreed on the arrearage does not reflect any lack of investigation on Garcia's part. Hence, there is no indication that Garcia failed to investigate the facts in an objectively reasonable manner. We now turn to the question of whether Garcia properly investigated the law.