Panel recommends 6-month suspension for former Judge Hale - again

Harland H. Hale

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By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch  •  Wednesday June 11, 2014 7:22 AM

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Despite the Ohio Supreme Court signaling for harsher punishment, the court’s disciplinary board is defending its belief that a six-month law-license suspension is appropriate for former Judge Harland H. Hale.
A stiffer sanction would be out of line compared with the penalties imposed on other lawyers in positions of public trust, says the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline.
Hale resigned as judge of Franklin County Environmental Court on May 24, 2013, after he fixed a speeding ticket for a lawyer defending him against sexual-harassment lawsuits.
Last fall, the board recommended a six-month suspension for Hale for acting with “selfish or dishonest motive,” but the justices rejected the suggestion and asked the board to consider tougher punishment.
In a filing on Monday, the board did not back off its recommendation, even after finding Hale gave false testimony at a March 3 hearing about when he resumed practicing law by failing to disclose five clients he was representing.
The board said Hale was guilty of one incident of misconduct — fixing the speeding ticket — while other public-sector lawyers have received half-year suspensions for ongoing misconduct and criminal convictions.
Among others, the board cited the disciplinary cases and six-month suspensions of former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and former Department of Public Safety chief lawyer Joshua Engel.
Dann resigned amid a sex-and-ethics scandal in 2008. His law license was suspended following misdemeanor convictions for receiving improper compensation and lying on his financial-disclosure statements.
Engel was fired in 2010 for illegally intercepting emails to state public-safety officials from the inspector general and a Dispatch reporter. He was convicted of misdemeanor counts of disclosing confidential law-enforcement information from the inspector general.
“While (Hale’s) conduct and motivation was obviously dishonest ... this was a single act of misconduct as opposed to a pattern of misconduct or multiple instances of misconduct,” the board wrote in its filing.
Hale admits he improperly dismissed a speeding ticket issued in late 2011 to Patrick M. Queen, a lawyer whose firm was defending Hale against sexual-harassment complaints later settled out of court.
Hale, 58, signed a falsified court entry stating the prosecutor dismissed the ticket and later asked a prosecutor to sign off on an entry reversing his action. Queen later pleaded guilty to speeding and paid $171.
Hale suggested he already effectively served a six-month suspension by refusing to practice law between his resignation on May 24, 2013, and until the Supreme Court refused to accept his recommended punishment on Nov. 15.
rludlow@dispatch.com
@RandyLudlow