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High court to consider suspension for Dann
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Dann
COLUMBUS
The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on a proposed six-month law-license suspension for former state Attorney General Marc Dann.
The case is unprecedented.
“Never before has the chief legal officer of the state of Ohio been subject to discipline,” wrote Jonathan E. Coughlan, the state’s disciplinary counsel, and Joseph M. Caligiuri, senior assistant disciplinary counsel, in a legal filing to the state Supreme Court. The two will argue for the suspension.
The disciplinary counsel and Alvin E. Mathews of Columbus, Dann’s attorney, will each have up to 15 minutes for oral arguments in front of the justices. Also, the attorneys will answer questions from the justices, if there are any.
A decision on cases such as these usually comes three to six months after the hearing.
The court’s 28-member board of commissioners on grievances and discipline recommended a six-month suspension for Dann in a Dec. 5 report.
The justices can accept, reject, decrease or increase the recommended suspension.
Dann and Mathews worked out a tentative deal Oct. 23 with the disciplinary counsel for a six-month stayed suspension. That would have permitted Dann to continue his small legal practice in Cuyahoga County.
But after a Nov. 3 hearing in front of a three-member subcommittee of the board of commissioners, the disciplinary counsel recommended a 12-month stayed suspension saying Dann tried to minimize his illegal actions.
The full 28-member board of commissioners not only agreed that Dann didn’t take full responsibility, but upped the proposed penalty to an actual six-month law-license suspension.
Because of Dann’s “inability to accept complete responsibility for his misdeeds while serving as Ohio’s attorney general, the board recommended an actual suspension from the practice of law,” Coughlan and Caligiuri wrote.
“Like the board, [we were] troubled by [Dann’s] inability to accept complete responsibility for his misconduct,” they added.
The pair wrote they fully support the board’s recommendation, and “at the very least” a one-year stayed suspension is warranted.
A Franklin County judge found Dann guilty in May 2010 of two misdemeanor-ethics violations.
The first conviction was for filing a false financial-disclosure form that didn’t include $17,540.86 he used in campaign expenses for hotels, parking, food, car insurance and other items. He also omitted the use of a private jet owned by a campaign contributor to attend a seminar in Arizona.
The other conviction was for providing $42,178 in improper compensation to state employees from his campaign and transition accounts.
Dann resigned 16 months into a four-year term in May 2008 after an internal-office investigation determined he ran an unprofessional office filled with cronyism. Dann, three of his former high-level administrators and his then-wife, who divorced him in July 2010, were convicted, primarily for misdemeanor crimes.
In his legal filing with the court, Mathews wrote that Dann’s resignation and acceptance of criminal responsibility “represent significant factors which should mitigate the disciplinary sanction.”
He added: “Taking into account the myriad of mitigating factors and the sole aggravated factor, and the precedent of this court and other jurisdictions, the appropriate sanction is a six-month stayed suspension.” A one-year stayed suspension is also “an appropriate sanction,” Matthews wrote.
Mathews wrote that Dann “has not backpedaled from his plea” and has “repeatedly accepted fault and apologized. His statements and demeanor throughout the hearing reflected how sorry he is.”
Coughlan and Caligiuri see it differently.
“Despite stating that he accepted full responsibility, [Dann] tried to minimize his involvement,” they wrote.
In Mathew’s legal filing on behalf of Dann, he included 10 letters of support from mid-2011 for his client.
The Mahoning Valley supporters among the ten are: Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judges John M. Durkin and R. Scott Krichbaum, Mahoning County Coroner David M. Kennedy, Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew D. Logan, Trumbull County Family Court Judge Richard L. James, and John Russo, co-director of Youngstown State University’s Center for Working-Class Studies.