Court Opinion

ID: 9696736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:56:38.863753+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:26.212672
License: Public Domain

GLICKMAN, Associate Judge,
dissenting in part:
Upon clear and convincing evidence, the Board on Professional Responsibility has found that Respondent Karen Cleaver-Bascombe knowingly billed the Superior Court for services that she had not performed. “Bar Counsel,” the Board reports, “proved that Respondent’s voucher was fraudulent.” Further, the Board accepted the Hearing Committee’s determination that “Respondent’s testimony was unsupported by the evidence and not credible.” Given these unequivocal conclusions, I disagree with my colleagues’ decision to remand this case for the Board to clarify and amplify its findings. I do not think a remand is desirable merely because the Board was reluctant to draw the additional conclusion, unnecessary to its (or our) decision, that Respondent also committed perjury before the Hearing Committee. Neither should we remand merely because we deem the Board’s recommended sanction to be ill-considered and too lenient.
Instead, I think we should reject the Board’s sanction recommendation and order that Respondent be disbarred for her misconduct. (I am in full agreement with my colleagues that Respondent committed each of the ethical violations with which she was charged.) In terms of the nature and gravity of her misconduct and its import for evaluating her character and fit*414ness to practice law, Respondent’s submission of what the Board has found was “a patently fraudulent” voucher is no less egregious than other misbehavior for which disbarment is virtually automatic, including misappropriation of client funds, In re Addams, 579 A.2d 190, 191 (D.C.1990) (en banc); mail or wire fraud, In re Bond, 519 A.2d 165, 166 (D.C.1986); felony theft of federal funds, In re Patterson, 833 A.2d 493 (D.C.2003); and other felony theft offenses, see id. (citing cases). It is immaterial, and certainly not mitigating, that Respondent has not been criminally convicted and that — due entirely to the exceptional alertness of the Superior Court judge who reviewed her voucher — her attempt to defraud the public fisc was blocked.
To be sure, in determining the appropriate sanction to impose on an errant attorney, we consider other factors in addition to the nature of the ethical violations. We also consider any mitigating or aggravating circumstances; the need to protect the public, the courts, and the legal profession; and the moral fitness of the attorney to the extent we can discern it. In re Hutchinson, 534 A.2d 919, 924 (D.C.1987) (en banc). Importantly, too, for this case, we keep in mind that one purpose of discipline is “to deter other attorneys from engaging in similar misconduct.” In re Reback, 513 A.2d 226, 231 (D.C.1986) (en banc). None of these other considerations can be said to ameliorate the presumptively appropriate sanction (disbarment) here. General deterrence is of especial concern in this case. In the interest of effective general deterrence, the severity of a sanction should take into account the difficulty of detecting and proving the misconduct at issue. That principle argues strongly in favor of disbarring Respondent, because inflated vouchers are difficult to detect and prove. To deter unscrupulous attorneys who know they are not likely to be caught if they inflate their charges, voucher fraud must incur a heavy penalty.
My colleagues are uncertain whether Respondent actually knew that her voucher was false but agree that she “at the minimum, submitted a voucher with reckless disregard for the truth of its contents.” Ante at 405. The remand is for the Board to clarify its findings on this point. I do not profess to understand how the distinction that my colleagues draw could be thought to apply to this case; Respondent unquestionably knew what she stated under oath in her voucher, and if she in fact never met with her client at the District of Columbia Jail, she surely knew that she did not do so. (And it beggars belief to imagine that Respondent was simply forgetful or was confused; certainly my colleagues do not indulge in such fancies.) Needless to add, any suggestion that Respondent was “merely” reckless (let alone honestly mistaken) is contrary not only to the express findings of the Hearing Committee and the Board, but also to Respondent’s own position. Respondent has not claimed that her voucher was anything but true.
More important, the distinction between actual knowledge and reckless disregard for the truth is without legal significance in the present context. Reckless disregard is not like mere sloppiness, poor record keeping, or other negligent error. Recklessness is a culpable mental state tantamount to actual knowledge and intent. Reckless misappropriation of client funds, for example, calls for disbarment the same as if it were intentional. In re Anderson, 778 A.2d 330, 338 (D.C.2001). Similarly, even if it plausibly could be maintained that Respondent “merely” submitted her false and inflated voucher with reckless disregard for whether it was true, she merits disbarment all the same. Thus, remanding for the Board to clarify whether it has *415found intentionality as opposed to recklessness is a pointless exercise. The implication that this court thinks otherwise — that we view reckless disregard for the truth as less culpable for attorney discipline purposes than knowing falsehood — is contrary to precedent and deeply troubling. I do not agree with that viewpoint.1
Lastly, I think it inappropriate to remand for the Board to address Respondent’s testimony that she performed significant legal work for which she did not seek compensation on her voucher. See ante at 413 n. 17. The premise that Respondent’s performance of such work might mitigate her fraud and justify a lesser sanction is legally dubious. Public funding of indigent defense depends on accurate reporting that enables the judge to scrutinize the work that a lawyer did in order to decide whether, and if so to what extent, the lawyer should be compensated for it. Material misrepresentation of the work performed, even if the number of hours listed is not exaggerated, thwarts such essential judicial oversight by precluding meaningful scrutiny. A lawyer who, intentionally or recklessly, submits a voucher to get paid for work she did not do therefore commits (or attempts) a monetary fraud on the court even if the lawyer could have requested the court to consider awarding the same total amount of compensation for the work she actually performed. It therefore is hard to see why Respondent’s putative evasion of mandatory judicial scrutiny and oversight of her actual work in order to get paid might deserve a lesser sanction. But I need not dwell on that question (which the parties have not briefed or argued). Respondent did not make, and thus she has waived, any claim that other work entitled her to the compensation she improperly sought; consequently, Respondent has waived any claim that this possible entitlement to equivalent compensation justifies a lesser sanction. Even if Respondent had not waived the claim, the evidence she produced on the point consisted only of her vague and uncorroborated testimony, which is quoted in the majority opinion, ante at 408. This testimony fell well short of demonstrating an entitlement to equivalent compensation. And even if Respondent had made the claim and testified adequately in support of it, the Hearing Committee and the Board already have found Respondent to be a witness unworthy of belief.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent from my colleagues’ decision to remand this case.

. I disagree, in particular, with my colleagues’ statement that ”[i]f the gravamen of Respondent’s violation is that she was recklessly sloppy in her timekeeping practices, and if there has been no proof of intent to defraud or of subsequent perjury, a recommendation that a relatively short suspension be imposed, with reinstatement conditioned on completion of the CLE course, may arguably be defensible ” Ante at 411-12.