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In re Griffith12/9/2003
Suffolk.
October 9, 2003
Attorney at Law, Canons of ethics, Deceit, Disciplinary proceeding, Suspension.
This bar discipline case requires us to decide the appropriate sanction to impose on the respondent, who, from 1991 until 1996, in the course of representing the estate of Morris Pina, Jr. (Pina), in a lawsuit against the city of New Bedford (and others) for police misconduct, failed to make certain important disclosures during discovery and trial concerning Pina's medical records and treatment. The Board of Bar Overseers (board) adopted the recommendation of the hearing committee that the respondent receive a public reprimand. Dissatisfied with the board's sanction, bar counsel filed, pursuant to § 3.57 of the Rules of the Board of Bar Overseers (2003), a demand for filing of information. Bar counsel seeks a two-year suspension on the grounds that: (1) the nondisclosure, or concealment, was intentional, and (2) no mitigating factors exist to warrant the less severe sanction of a public reprimand. The board in turn filed an information with the county court pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 8 (4), as appearing in 425 Mass. 1309 (1997). A single justice reserved and reported the case without decision. We conclude that a one-year suspension is the appropriate sanction to impose.
1. We summarize the findings of fact made by the hearing committee and adopted by the board.
The respondent was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in December, 1978. Pina died on June 16, 1990, after being arrested by New Bedford police officers and while in police custody. In early 1991, Delores Gonsalves, Pina's sister, hired the respondent to investigate Pina's death, and, if appropriate, to commence a lawsuit against those responsible for the death.
The respondent was drawn to the case, in part, because of the Cape Verdean heritage he shared with Pina and his perceptions, having grown up in New Bedford, of antagonistic behavior exhibited by New Bedford police officers toward Cape Verdeans. On July 29, 1991, the respondent filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of Gonsalves, the administratrix of Pina's estate, against the city of New Bedford and other defendants including the mayor, police commanders, patrolmen, and detention attendants. The complaint alleged various Federal and State civil rights violations. The complaint subsequently was amended to add counts for damages arising from Pina's alleged wrongful death, and further amended to add a survival action and a count alleging an intentional cover-up by the defendants.
Trial began on December 7, 1995, and continued for seventy-two days over a three-month period. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Gonsalves and awarded damages of $435,000. Judgment in that amount subsequently entered. Following trial, the parties entered into a settlement agreement vacating the judgments against the city and the mayor, and requiring the city to pay Pina's estate $555,000.
Before commencing litigation, the respondent learned from bills sent to Pina's mother that Pina had been treated by Dr. Hanumara Chowdri of New Bedford. The respondent sent a request for Dr. Chowdri's treatment records of Pina. On July 2, 1991, the respondent received a response from Dr. Chowdri, which included a record disclosing that Pina had been a patient of Dr. Chowdri at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford in May, 1988, and that during that admission Pina had tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
In December, 1991, one of the defense lawyers, Austin Joyce, served interrogatories on Gonsalves (Joyce interrogatories). Interrogator
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