Law Students

Where does the MRPC cover this one?

By LSR

Judge Edmund Caplicki in New York told a criminal defense lawyer that she had "a nice butt." He's been censured by the state ethics commission.

Caplicki, 62, told the watchdog group he was merely parroting the comments [that attorney Ruth] Boyer's client - a man accused of theft - had made about the lawyer's backside. But the panel noted the jurist not only quizzed three other male defendants on whether they agreed with the evaluation, but then mentioned it again to Boyer.

New York Daily News.

According to the Commission's findings, Boyer's client started the brouhaha by identifying her as the "cute" attorney with a "nice butt" who had worked with him before. The judge, however, couldn't leave well enough alone. As the day wore on and the court moved the docket along, the judge "asked each defendant if he agreed with Mr. Wood?s remarks about [Boyer]," though he didn't use the exact words. (¶ 8). The next day, he started up again, saying that, "because of how he had treated" Boyer the day before, "he would call her case first," explaining to the other attorneys present that he was doing so because of her client's "nice" and "cute butt" comments. (¶ 9).

The Commission determined that Caplicki's unnecessary repeating of the client's comments constituted a failure to act with the dignity, decorum, courtesy, and respect required of his position, based on standards the Commission has articulated since "as far back as 1983."

Full post as published by Jurisdoctor on October 11, 2007 (boomark / email).