Lawyer’s License at Risk Over Blog Post
A lawyer who called a controversial Broward County judge an “evil, unfair witch” in a blog post is facing ethics charges for his online tirade.
Lawyer Sean Conway told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he wrote the angry blog post because Judge Cheryl Alemán was giving defense lawyers only one week to prepare for trial. The post criticized Aleman’s “ugly, condescending attitude” and questioned her mental stability.
Now The Florida Bar has found that Conway may have violated five ethics rules, including a ban on impugning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, the newspaper says.
Aleman herself is on the hot seat. The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission has accused her of bullying defense lawyers and violating ethics rules that require judges to be ”patient, dignified, and courteous,” ABAJournal.com noted in a prior post. She is awaiting the findings of a three-day hearing.
Conway’s lawyer contends Florida ethics rules restricting lawyers’ comments on judges are vague and overly broad.
A hat tip to How Appealing, which posted the story.
