Court Opinion

ID: 9693048
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:17:36.099917+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:39.157802
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
Per this Court’s Order of December 21, 1984, Moeckly was suspended from the practice of law; suspension was bottomed on SDCL 16-19-37 1; the suspension was to continue “pending final disposition of disciplinary proceedings.” Before us, “final * * * disciplinary proceedings” attend.
Moeckly has not appeared personally nor by counsel. No showing whatsoever is made in resistance to this disbarment proceeding. The record suggests that he is serving time in a federal penitentiary at Fort Worth, Texas.
Moeckly is not in a federal penitentiary nor is he being disbarred for some generic professional impropriety. His disbarment is, and should be, founded on SDCL 16-19-36,2 i.e., he has committed serious federal crimes for which he was sentenced to seven years’ confinement. Moeckly was found guilty of perjury for having made false declarations before a United States Grand Jury and having “combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed with others to import into the United States, cocaine * *
Cocaine importation from South America and resultant drug abuse of our citizens is one of the greatest threats to our Nation. This attorney collaborated, by nefarious means, to corrupt his fellow human beings. Therefore, I join in the disbarment recommendation of the State Bar and this Court’s decision.

. SDCL 16-19-37 provides:
If any attorney has been convicted of a serious crime as defined in § 16-19-36, the Supreme Court shall enter an order immediately suspending the attorney, whether the conviction resulted from a plea of guilty or nolo conten-dere or from a verdict after trial or otherwise, and regardless of the pendency of an appeal, pending final disposition of a disciplinary proceeding to be commenced upon such conviction. Upon good cause shown, the Court may set aside such order restraining the attorney from engaging in the practice of law when it appears in the interest of justice so to do. An order suspending an attorney from the practice of law pursuant to this section shall constitute a suspension of the attorney for the purpose of §§ 16-19-74 to 16-19-82, inclusive, unless the Supreme Court shall otherwise order.

. SDCL 16-19-36 provides:
The clerk of any court in this state in which an attorney is convicted of a serious crime shall within ten days of said conviction transmit a certificate thereof to the Supreme Court. The term "serious crime” shall include any felony and any lesser crime a necessary element of which, as determined by the statutory or common law definition of such crime, involves improper conduct as an attorney, interference with the administration of justice, false swearing, misrepresentation, fraud, willful failure to file income tax returns, deceit, bribery, extortion, misappropriation, theft, or an attempt or a conspiracy or solicitation of another to commit a serious crime.