Attorney Grievance Com'n of Maryland v. Goldsborough

• Decision Date: 01 September 1992
• Docket Number: No. 3,3
• Citation: 330 Md. 342,624 A.2d 503
• Parties: ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND v. George J. GOLDSBOROUGH, Jr. Misc. Docket (Subtitle BV),
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 342

330 Md. 342

624 A.2d 503

ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND v. George J. GOLDSBOROUGH, Jr.

Misc. Docket (Subtitle BV) No. 3, Sept. Term, 1992.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

May 12, 1993.

Melvin Hirshman, Bar Counsel, and John C. Broderick, Asst. Bar Counsel for the Attorney Grievance Com'n of Maryland, for petitioner.

Peter Axelrad, Baltimore, Pamela A. Bresnahan, Washington, DC, for respondent.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, CHASANOW, KARWACKI and ROBERT M. BELL, JJ., and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., Judge (Retired, Specially Assigned).

CHASANOW, Judge.

This extremely troubling disciplinary matter reached this Court when the Attorney Grievance Commission (the Commission) filed a petition for disciplinary action against George J. Goldsborough, Jr. alleging violations of the Disciplinary Rules of the Code of Professional Responsibility and the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct. The petition arose from a complaint filed with the Commission by Catharine Sweitzer, a former client of Goldsborough, as well as from other information the Commission discovered while investigating Sweitzer's complaint. In accordance with Rule BV9.b. of the Maryland Rules of Procedure, we transmitted the matter to Judge D. William Simpson of the Circuit Court for Wicomico County for a hearing on the charges. The conclusions we reach below are based on Judge Simpson's findings of fact, which we consider prima facie correct and will not disturb unless they are shown to be clearly erroneous. Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Powell, 328 Md. 276, 287-88, 614 A.2d 102, 108 (1992); Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Bakas, 323 Md. 395, 402, 593 A.2d 1087, 1091 (1991); Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Winters, 309 Md. 658, 665, 526 A.2d 55, 58 (1987).

I. Facts

Catharine Sweitzer retained Mr. Goldsborough to seek recovery for injuries she received in 1978 when she was accidentally shot by a trespassing deer hunter. In connection with his representation, Goldsborough visited Sweitzer at her home. At one point during the visit, Goldsborough told Sweitzer she was a "bad girl," pulled her over his knee, and lightly spanked her several times on her buttocks. A second incident occurred in Goldsborough's Easton office when Sweitzer visited to tell Goldsborough she had become engaged to be married. Goldsborough became upset with Sweitzer because he believed her engagement might make a jury less sympathetic to her injuries, thereby affecting her lawsuit. Again calling her a "bad girl," he pulled Ms. Sweitzer across his knee and, as before, spanked her lightly several times.

While investigating Sweitzer's complaint, the Commission's investigators learned of allegations that Goldsborough had behaved improperly toward at least one other female client, and had also repeatedly spanked a young woman who had been his personal secretary several years earlier. Ultimately, both of these women testified before the Commission's Inquiry Panel and before Judge Simpson. The client, Peggy Porter, had retained Goldsborough in the summer of 1984 to represent her in a divorce proceeding. At a meeting in Goldsborough's office in the fall of that year she became emotionally upset and, as she was leaving, Goldsborough put his arm around her and kissed her on the neck and cheek. She pulled back, said "I don't think you should be doing this," and left the office. Porter subsequently retained another attorney.

In January 1986, Sandy Schisler, then seventeen years old, applied to Goldsborough's office for a job as a secretary. She was interviewed once and then called back by Goldsborough for a second interview which took place in Goldsborough's office at which only she and Goldsborough were present. During this second interview, Goldsborough explained that he intended to teach Schisler to be a good secretary and would accomplish this by disciplining her with spankings. He demonstrated this by placing her over his knee and patting her on the buttocks. Schisler was offered a job and eventually became Goldsborough's personal secretary. ^{1 1} Schisler testified that during her employment from January 1986 to November 1987, Goldsborough spanked her approximately once a week. By Schisler's account, on "more than just a handful" of occasions Goldsborough required her to bare her buttocks for the spankings. She testified that these disciplinary measures were provoked by typing errors she made in Goldsborough's documents and elementary mistakes that Goldsborough called "no brainers." Schisler testified that she did not want to be spanked, but felt that Goldsborough was trying to teach her to be a good secretary. When asked if she believed she could lose her job if she did not submit to the spankings, Schisler testified that she thought so, "because I wouldn't be learning, and I wouldn't be trying to correct my mistakes." In November 1987, Goldsborough's wife heard of the spankings and suggested that Schisler leave her job. Mrs. Goldsborough referred Schisler to counseling, for which Mrs. Goldsborough paid. Schisler also received over three times her gross weekly salary in severance pay.

In written response to an inquiry from Bar Counsel, and in sworn testimony before the Inquiry Panel and Judge Simpson, Goldsborough has consistently denied spanking Catharine Sweitzer. In written response to another inquiry from Bar Counsel asking Goldsborough whether he had "subjected [Sandy Schisler] to regular spankings that continued throughout the course of her employment," Goldsborough said that "at no time during the course of her employment here, was Ms. [Schisler] ever 'subjected' to anything, including, specifically, 'regular spankings.' " In subsequent testimony before the Inquiry Panel and Judge Simpson, however, Goldsborough admitted that he had in fact spanked Schisler on one occasion when he became frustrated with her poor work. He explained that she told him that was how her father or grandfather had "gotten her attention." Goldsborough denied under oath that he had spanked Schisler on any regular basis, or that he had ever spanked her bare buttocks. Judge Simpson found by clear and convincing evidence, however, that Schisler's testimony was truthful.

Bar Counsel also alleged that during the investigation, Goldsborough failed to cooperate in responding to the Commission's inquiries. In her complaint about the spankings, Catharine Sweitzer had stated, "I know of two dissolutions of partnerships that have stemmed directly from this unethical misconduct." In his written response to Bar Counsel's inquiry on this point, Goldsborough stated, "No partnerships of which I have ever been a member have been dissolved." What the evidence in fact established was that Goldsborough was engaged in the practice of law in 1983 as a member of two professional associations (P.A.'s), one in Easton and the other in Annapolis. In late 1982 and early 1983, members of the Easton P.A. became concerned about continuing allegations regarding Goldsborough's relationship with female clients and employees. One employee of the firm discovered a book entitled Spanking and a Single Girl in Goldsborough's desk. There were apparently rumors and reports of Goldsborough's spanking clients. As a result, the Easton P.A. adopted a policy that Goldsborough not accept domestic relations cases representing female clients. Although he agreed to accept this policy, Goldsborough violated it soon thereafter. For these reasons, and because of other internal conflicts over economic policies, the Easton P.A. terminated Goldsborough's employment on July 23, 1983. As a spillover, the Annapolis P.A. also terminated Goldsborough's employment. Judge Simpson found that Goldsborough's assertion that no partnerships of which he was a member had ever been dissolved was technically correct, noting that it was not a partnership that was terminated but his membership in a professional association. Judge Simpson also found, however, that this response was "anything but candid."

At the close of the evidence, Judge Simpson found that the incidents involving the spanking of Catharine Sweitzer and the kissing of Peggy Porter, occurring prior to January 1, 1987, constituted a violation of Disciplinary Rules 1-102(A)(1), (5), and (6). ² Judge Simpson also found that the incidents involving Sandy Schisler which occurred over a period of time terminating after January 1, 1987 constituted a violation of Rules 8.4(a) and (d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. ³ Finally, Judge Simpson found that Goldsborough's misrepresentations in his correspondence with Bar Counsel and his false testimony before the Inquiry Panel violated Rule 8.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. ⁴

II. Goldsborough's Exceptions

Goldsborough raises a number of exceptions to Judge Simpson's findings of fact and conclusions of law. We address them seriatim.

A.

Upon the completion of its investigation, and in accordance with Maryland Rule BV6.a.4., Bar Counsel referred Sweitzer's complaint to an Inquiry Panel. After a two-day hearing, the Inquiry Panel filed its findings and recommendations with Bar Counsel, who transmitted these recommendations to the Review Board as per Rule BV6.d.4(b). After its review of the Inquiry Panel's report, the Review Board, under Rule BV9.a., directed Bar Counsel to file a petition for disciplinary action in this Court. Goldsborough's initial contention is that the Commission violated his due process rights by failing to provide adequate notice of the charges against him throughout the progressive stages of this disciplinary process.

Specifically, Goldsborough objects to: (1) the Inquiry Panel's findings that he violated Rules 8.1(a) and (b), charges which were not specifically raised before or during the Inquiry Panel proceedings, and (2) the Review Board's finding that he violated DR 1-102(A)(5) when the Inquiry Panel found no such violation. He also objects to the petition's charge that he violated DR 1-102(A)(1) & (6)...