Opinion ID: 2069869
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The nature and character of Mr. Wells' offenses; the number and duration of offenses.

Text: In assessing the nature and character of Mr. Wells' offenses, one has to consider the totality of his misconduct and not merely the specific count to which he pleaded guilty. The minority of the Committee agrees with the Indiana Supreme Court that Mr. Wells' conduct toward his young male clients was a grave offense. In his testimony before the Committee, Mr. Wells agreed with this conclusion. Thus, Mr. Wells willfully and repeatedly breached a fiduciary duty owed to clients over an extended period of time. The number of clients affected and the period involved was significant. While this Court has never had occasion to consider an original proceeding in which such misconduct has been subject to discipline, it has reviewed reciprocal discipline matters that have involved some similar conduct. See In Re Piatt, 724 A.2d 1210 (D.C.1999) (public censure and unsupervised probation for one year for sexually harassing clients); In re Goldsborough, 654 A.2d 1285 (D.C.1995) (two-year suspension for sexual misconduct towards female clients, with reinstatement conditioned on proof of fitness). The Court has not opined as to how it would deal with such matters if they were before it in an original proceeding, but the Indiana Supreme Court found that the conduct constituted grave misconduct and in neither of the reciprocal discipline matters does it appear that any criminal proceedings against the attorney were ever instituted.