Court Opinion

ID: 9377497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-07 22:04:42.433595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:14.616183
License: Public Domain

ORIGINAL                                    03/07/2023
           IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA

                                        PR 22-0420                       ALED         Case Number: PR 22-0420

                                                                          MAR 0 7 2023
                                                                       Bewen Greenw000
                                                                     Clerk of Supreme Cour
 IN THE MA 1 1ER OF PENELOPE OTERI,                                     Stato of Montana

       An Attorney at Law,                                          PUBLIC
                                                                   CENSURE
              Respondent.

       CHIEF JUSTICE McGRATH: This is the time and date set for the public censure
of Penelope Oteri, a member of the State Bar of Montana. Ms. Oteri, do you have counsel?
Please step to the well of the Court and we will proceed with your public censure.
       JUSTICE BAKER: Ms. Oteri, this public censure is being delivered today in
accordance with our Order of February 22, 2023, of which you have been provided a copy.
The disciplinary complaint against you is based upon your violation of Rule 3.3 of the
Montana Rules of Professional Conduct, Candor Toward the Tribunal, when you failed to
notify the trial court of your client J.F.'s misleading disclosure of the value of a piece of
farming equipment on the asset disclosure in his marriage dissolution case, of which you
had direct knowledge. The disciplinary complaint is based additionally upon your violation
of Rule 1.7 of the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct, Conflict of Interest, when you
coordinated partial payment on behalf of your corporate client Safer Medical for the
purchase of that same piece of farming equipment from J.F. at a higher value than appraised
and subsequently cross-examined Safer Medical's CEO in J.F.'s dissolution proceeding
about the nature of that tranSaction. Finally, the disciplinary complaint alleged that this
conduct violated Rule 8.4 of the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct because it
involved deceit or misrepresentation or was prejudicial to the administration ofjustice.
      These proceedings are founded upon your acknowledgment of these violations in
your tendered admission, which this Court approved upon the recommendation of the
Commission on Practice.
      Ms. Oteri, we hereby impose upon you the public censure of this Court.
      Do you have anything you want to say?
      Copies of this Proceeding in Public Censure shall be delivered to you, Ms. Oteri,
and to the Disciplinary Counsel, the Office Administrator for the Commission on Practice,
the Clerks of all the District Courts of the State of Montana, each District Court Judge in
the State of Montana, the Clerk of the Federal District Court for the District of Montana,
the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit, and the Executive Director
of the State Bar of Montana.
      DATED this 7th day of March, 2023.

                                                              Chief Justice

                                                    Ali .44 ,(uL
                                                                 Justices

                                            2