Court Opinion

ID: 9505684
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:14:20.759337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:41.557483
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
The Court’s decision to impose nearly the mildest possible sanction in this case is difficult to justify in light of our decisions in other, similar matters.
For example, in Matter of Atanga, 636 N.E.2d 1253 (Ind.1994), the Court suspended for thirty days the president-elect of the Marion County Bar Association for reckless remarks solicited by the editor of an obscure newsletter. That decision issued by a vote of three to two. I agreed then with many of Justice Sullivan’s observations about why the penalty was too severe. Atanga was a relatively new lawyer, for example, and he had issued his remarks only upon solicitation and through a medium of so little circulation that there *429was probably no injury at all to the judicial system. Atanga, 636 N.E.2d at 1260 (Sullivan, J., dissenting).
In this case, of course, the respondent lawyer is not an inexperienced member of the profession but a seasoned veteran holding an office of great public trust. Moreover, he employed Muncie’s biggest news outlet and used this platform multiple times for his attacks on the court. The Atanga precedent seems to warrant weightier treatment of the current violation than the majority gives it.
The same could be said concerning Matter of Turner, 631 N.E.2d 918 (Ind.1994). In that case, the respondent lawyer made actionable remarks in court, about the court, and received a public reprimand. Two of us dissented, observing that the lawyer had lost his temper when a pro tem “failed” to “remain in control and guard against appearances of preferential treatment,” id. at 920 (Sullivan, J., dissenting), and that it seemed Turner was the only person held accountable in a situation largely created by the pro tem and opposing counsel, id. (Shepard, C.J., dissenting),
There is no sign of similar mitigating circumstances in the current case. Reed’s assaults were not the product of any high-pressure moments, and they were not provoked by others. Thus, a public admonition seems too modest a response to the facts in this case. A short suspension seems warranted.
DICKSON, J., concurs.