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In re Drakulich12/19/1995
ns for the Washoe County District Attorney's Office, to testify in the supplemental proceedings. Rusk used to have a private investigation and polygraph firm, and he shared office space with appellant. Rusk testified that he would see Hall at the office and Hall would say that he was doing work for appellant. Hall would ask if Rusk had any work that he could do, such as skip tracing or asset searches. Finally, Rusk testified that the amount of money Hall received for allegedly doing asset checks was appropriate for doing such a check. Appellant also called Roy Allen Grayson, owner of Business and Professional Collection Service, the collection agency that Skelly said appellant always used. Grayson said that his firm is a client of appellant's, but that in the eleven-year period his firm has been in existence, he has never been asked by appellant or any member of appellant's staff to perform an asset check on any defendant in one of appellant's cases, nor has his firm ever performed an asset check for appellant
[111 Nev. 1556, Page 1566]
Grayson was specifically asked the following question by a panel member: "What the secretary testified to was Al over at Business and Professional Collection Service would do any credit checks that she needed because they are a client of [appellant's]. If she testified that way, would she be mistaken?" Grayson responded: "She would be mistaken." On March 2, 1993, the panel filed in this court its supplemental report. The panel unanimously concluded that its original findings, conclusions, and recommendation were correct. The panel specifically found that Hall's testimony "was not particularly credible or at all exculpatory."
STANDARDS OF REVIEW
" n discharging its inherent authority to discipline the bar, this court has the obligation to conduct an independent and de novo review of any record compiled in a disciplinary proceeding in order to determine whether discipline in any particular instance is warranted," see State Bar of Nevada v. Claiborne, 104 Nev. 115, 126, 756 P.2d 464, 471 (1988), or whether any charge meriting discipline has been proven, see In re Miller, 87 Nev. 65, 68-69, 482 P.2d 326, 328 (197l). 4 Thus, this court has held that "the ultimate responsibility for arriving at the truth in disciplinary matters lies with this court." Claiborne, 104 Nev. at 126, 756 P.2d at 471.
In bar disciplinary matters, a higher degree of proof is required than in ordinary civil proceedings. Clear and convincing evidence must support any findings of misconduct. See In re Stuhff, 108 Nev. 629, 634-35, 837 P.2d 853, 856 (1992): see also SCR 105(2)(e). This court has held that clear and convincing evidence must be "satisfactory" proof that is:
so strong and cogent as to satisfy the mind and conscience of a common man, and so to convince him that he would venture to act upon that conviction in matters of the highest concern and importance to his own interest. It need not possess such a degree of force as to be irresistible, but there must be evidence of tangible facts from which a legitimate inference . . . may be drawn.
[111 Nev. 1556, Page 1567]
Gruber v. Baker, 20 Nov. 453, 477, 23 P. 858, 865 (1890), cited in Stuhff 108 Nov. at 635, 837 P.2d at 8563. Clear and convincing evidence has been defined by other courts as "evidence establishing every factual element to be highly probable," see Butler v. Poulin, 500 A.2d 257, 260 n.5 (Me. 1985), or as "evidence [which] must be so clear as to leave no substantial doubt," see In Re David C., 200 Cal. Rptr. 115, 127 (Ct. App. 1984). Our independent and de novo review of this record simply does not reveal satisfactory, strong, or cogent proof of
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