Did Indiana Lawyer's Help With Son's Plea Cross Ethical Line?
An Indiana prosecutor is facing attorney disciplinary charges for helping his son negotiate a plea in a drunken-driving case.
Madison County Prosecutor Thomas Broderick Jr. contends that he was acting as his son’s father, not his lawyer, both when he wrote to a Florida prosecutor in 2001 concerning a misdemeanor battery case against the youth and when he helped his son negotiate a plea in an Indiana drunken-driving case in 2003, reports the Herald Bulletin. Evan Broderick was 19 years old at the time of the Florida case.
The 2001 letter was written on Thomas Broderick’s law office stationery. He was in private practice at the time and had not yet begun working for the prosecutor’s office, the newspaper notes.
However, the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission contends in a disciplinary complaint that Broderick acted unprofessionally by failing to disclose to Delaware County, Indiana, prosecutors the earlier Florida case involving his son.
The newspaper article contains links to the 2001 letter, the disciplinary complaint and Broderick’s answer. He declined the Herald Bulletin’s request for comment.
