Catholic Rights Group Files Ethics Complaint Over Minn. Lawyer's Religious Slurs in Court Filing
A Catholic rights group has filed a formal ethics complaint against a Minnesota lawyer whose bankruptcy filing was filled with religious slurs against a federal judge and others.
The complaint was lodged against Hastings, Minn., lawyer Rebekah Nett, who filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court last month calling U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher “a Catholic Knight Witch Hunter” and a “dirty Catholic,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.
Nett, 36, also accused the judge and others of conspiring to deny a fair hearing to her client, Yehud-Monosson USA Inc.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, which filed the complaint, said Nett’s court filing was the “most egregious” example of inappropriate conduct he’d ever seen by a lawyer.
“If I had my way, she would be disbarred,” he said.
The Catholic League has filed a similar complaint against Nett with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation, Donohue said, because Nett is also licensed to practice there.
Dreher has ordered Nett and Yehud-Monosson’s president, Naomi Isaacson, to appear at a Jan. 4 hearing and explain why they should not be fined up to $10,000 each for what she described as “unsupported and outrageous allegations of bigotry, deceit, conspiracy and scandalous statements.”
The judge has also issued a contempt order against Isaacson, a nonpracticing lawyer, demanding that she turn over certain documents by Friday or face being picked up by U.S. Marshals.
This isn’t Nett’s first brush with authorities. Last month, she was placed on probation for a year for leaving her 2½-year-old son in her car last summer while she visited a health club to work out.
Neither Nett nor Isaacson could be reached for comment.
