Friday, In re, 19893

Citation263 S.C. 156,208 S.E.2d 535
Decision Date26 September 1974
Docket NumberNo. 19893,19893
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of South Carolina
PartiesIn the Matter of Tom FRIDAY, Respondent.

Atty. Gen. Daniel R. McLeod and Asst. Atty. Gen. A. Camden Lewis, Columbia, for complainant.

L. Marion Gressette, St. Matthews, and Marshall B. Williams and Lofton M. Fanning, Orangeburg, for respondent.

PER CURIAM:

After hearings pursuant to our rule on disciplinary procedure, the Board of Commissioners of Grievances and Discipline filed with this Court its certified report finding the respondent guilty of professional misconduct, and recommending that the respondent be publicly reprimanded. The matter is now before us on the report of the Board and the respondent's return to our order requiring him to show cause why a disciplinary order should not be issued against him.

Respondent is a member of the Bar of South Carolina and has been engaged in the practice of law in this state since 1949. For quite a number of years, until he resigned to run for other political office in 1972, the respondent was a magistrate in the City of Orangeburg and also practiced law in that city. This proceeding was instituted by complaint and proceeded to a hearing before a panel in November, 1973. The complainant charged the respondent with alleged professional misconduct in 22 particulars or counts. The facts as to 17 of the charges were stipulated and as to these the panel concluded that the stipulated facts constituted professional misconduct on the part of the respondent and that the appropriate punishment should be a public reprimand. As to the other five counts the panel exonerated the respondent either for lack of evidence or upon finding that the charges were not sufficiently proven by the conflicting evidence.

The report of the panel was reviewed by the Board on April 5, 1974; the Board after lengthy consideration of the report finally voted unanimously to confirm the findings of the panel as to the professional misconduct of the respondent, and by a majority vote, approved its recommendation that the respondent be publicly, rather than privately, reprimanded.

In the 17 instances in which the respondent was found guilty of professional misconduct he had, as an attorney, represented defendants in the General Sessions Court after having either issued the arrest warrants and/or fixed the amounts of the bonds in the cases. In every instance the defendants entered pleas of guilty in the General Sessions Court. In some cases he was paid a fee for his representation, but in others he was not. In none of the cases did the respondent hold a preliminary hearing and he represented none of the defendants in any civil matters arising out of or connected with the criminal cases.

Respondent testified that he had not intentionally acted improperly in any of these cases and that he had ceased any further representation of defendants in such cases when the question of the impropriety of his conduct was called to his attention by a circuit judge. He contends that the function of issuing warrants and setting bonds were ministerial, as opposed to judicial, acts and that none of the defendants had been before him in his judicial capacity as a magistrate. Such contention is clearly without merit. The determination of existence of probable cause for the issuance of an arrest warrant is clearly a judicial function. Likewise, consideration of the circumstances in a particular case to determine the appropriate amount of bail is a judicial and not a ministerial function.

Section 43--4 of the South Carolina Code provides that 'It shall be unlawful for any magistrate to appear as an attorney at law in any of the courts of this State in any action which may have been before him in his official capacity as such magistrate. Any magistrate who...

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11 cases
  • Council on Probate Judicial Conduct re Kinsella
    • United States
    • Connecticut Supreme Court
    • May 15, 1984
    ...Matter of Field, 281 Or. 623, 629, 576 P.2d 348 (1978); Matter of Dalessandro, 483 Pa. 431, 437, 397 A.2d 743 (1979); In re Friday, 263 S.C. 156, 159, 208 S.E.2d 535 (1974); Matter of Heuermann, 90 S.D. 312, 317, 240 N.W.2d 603 (1976); Matter of Johnson, 568 P.2d 855, 865-66 (Wyo.1977); con......
  • Anonymous (M-156-90) v. State Bd. of Medical Examiners
    • United States
    • South Carolina Court of Appeals
    • June 6, 1996
    ...found there was clear and convincing proof that attorney financed a drug deal and, as a result, should be disbarred); In re Friday, 263 S.C. 156, 208 S.E.2d 535 (1974) ("[P]roof of any charge of alleged misconduct [by an attorney] must be clear and In addition, South Carolina case law requi......
  • Palmer, Matter of
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • March 16, 1979
    ...and convincing); Pennsylvania, In re Shigon, 462 Pa. 1, 329 A.2d 235 (1974) (Clear and satisfactory); South Carolina, In re Friday, 263 S.C. 156, 208 S.E.2d 535 (1974) (Clear and convincing); South Dakota, In re Jaquith, 79 S.D. 677, 117 N.W.2d 97 (1962) (Clear, undoubted preponderance); Ut......
  • Anonymous (M-156-90) v. State Bd. of Medical Examiners
    • United States
    • South Carolina Supreme Court
    • November 18, 1997
    ...allegation of fraud or statute or court rule requiring higher burden of proof, standard is preponderance). 5 See e.g. In re Friday, 263 S.C. 156, 208 S.E.2d 535 (1974); In re Edwards, 319 S.C. 57, 459 S.E.2d 837 (1995). There is not a particular case in which this standard was adopted where......
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