Court Opinion

ID: 9766970
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:05:03.360863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:27.540936
License: Public Domain

KELLEHER, Justice,
concurring.
The sole purpose of this concurrence is to respond to the defendant’s motion that I recuse myself from any participation in the consideration of his appeal because of remarks I allegedly made at a disciplinary hearing when one of his counsel in this appeal appeared before this court to show cause why she should not be disciplined after pleading to a criminal charge of attempted larceny of three sets of motor-vehicle registration plates from the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI). The incident at the ACI is further described in Carter v. Munson, R.I., 452 A.2d 309 (1982).
The defendant’s motion affords me the opportunity to highlight the major considerations that govern my participation in disciplinary hearings. They are (1) should discipline be imposed? and (2) what motivates the attorney to engage in activity that can result in the loss of one’s license to practice law? This last factor played a major role in my questioning of Ms. Mun-son at the show-cause hearing, having in mind the many years she served with dis*708tinction as a member of the Public Defender’s staff.
At the hearing, I made two inquiries of Ms. Munson; the gist of each concerned her relationship, if any, with the defendant. Her negative responses made me well aware that my motivational inquiries were getting nowhere, and I announced that I would recuse myself from any further participation in the hearing. My recusal was based on a belief that had I continued to participate and reached the point where I thought discipline should be imposed, such a conclusion on my part might be viewed by Ms. Munson as a manifestation of my supposed displeasure with her friendship with the defendant rather than a proper response to the evidence adduced at the hearing. State v. Clark, R.I., 423 A.2d 1151 (1980), stressed that judges have as great an obligation not to recuse themselves when there is no reason to do so as they have to do so when the occasion does arise. At no time during that hearing did I say anything to Ms. Munson or her attorney which would warrant my recusing myself from consideration of the appeal presently before this court.