Opinion ID: 1972166
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: bad check offenses

Text: Respondent was called upon to answer to charges under Art. 41, Sec. 141 (bad checks) on five (5) separate occasions. Two of the charges were concluded by a nol pros and one by the entry of a stet. Two of the charges produced guilty pleas, later stricken and amended to probation before judgment. Thus, Respondent does not now stand convicted of any of the bad check charges. However, having entered guilty pleas he is saddled with the presumption of knowledge of the insufficiency of funds as established by Art. 27, Sec. 142(a). To that extent his actions must be said to constitute, at the least, misrepresentation and, is therefore, a violation DR 1-102(A)(4). Respondent has offered evidence in mitigation of those charges, including his special relationship with the drawee bank, the involvement only of his personal account and funds rather than professional accounts or clients' funds and that the overdrafts were the result of social, rather than professional, misconduct. This Court, in a disciplinary proceeding, cannot re-evaluate or re-weigh the evidence in the criminal case. Attorney Grievance Commission v. Barnes, 286 Md. 474 [408 A.2d 719] (1979). Petitioner also urges that the bad check charges amount to moral turpitude, citing Attorney Grievance Commission v. Sperling, 288 Md. 576 [419 A.2d 1067] (1980). In Sperling, the respondent was convicted under Art. 27, Sec. 142, the predecessor of the present bad check statute, of obtaining services by means of a bad check with intent to defraud. The current bad check statute has been somewhat softened and contains no reference to fraud or deceit. A bad check case involving deception must be prosecuted under the theft statute, not as a bad check case. Art. 27, Sec. 144. Specific criminal intent to defraud is not an element of the current bad check statute. The ruling of Sperling relates to a different, and harsher, statute and is not sufficient to support a finding that Respondent is guilty of moral turpitude. Moral turpitude is: `... an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellow men, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man.' Braverman v. Bar Assn. of Baltimore, 209 Md. 328 [121 A.2d 473] (1956). Unless the intent to defraud is an element of the crime of which a respondent is convicted the offense does not per se involve moral turpitude. Attorney Grievance Commission v. Walman, 280 Md. 453 [374 A.2d 354] (1977). No attorney discipline cases charging misconduct predicated upon the present Art. 27, Sec. 141 have been decided. Therefore, under the rationale of Walman and Barnes Respondent's violation of Art. 27, Sec. 141 constitutes neither fraud nor moral turpitude.