Tejeda v. Ky. Bar Ass'n
| Docket Number | 2022-SC-0470-KB |
| Decision Date | 28 September 2023 |
| Parties | RODERICK ANIBAL TEJEDA MOVANT v. KENTUCKY BAR ASSOCIATION RESPONDENT |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
MODIFIED: JANUARY 18, 2024
ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR REHEARING AND SUA SPONTE MODIFYING
The Petition for Rehearing filed by Roderick Anibal Tejada, of the Opinion and Order of the Court, rendered September 28 2023, is DENIED. This Court sua sponte elects to modify its Opinion and Order of the Court, rendered September 28, 2023, to correct language in numerical paragraph 3 of the Opinion and Order. The original Opinion and Order is modified as set forth in the attached Opinion and Order.
All sitting. All concur.
OPINION AND ORDERRoderick Anibal Tejeda applied for reinstatement to the practice of law pursuant to Rules of the Supreme Court (SCR) 3.502 after this Court imposed a four-year suspension from the practice of law for misconduct following his plea of guilty to reckless homicide stemming from an automobile accident in which the driver of the other vehicle was killed. See Tejeda v. Kentucky Bar Association, 456 S.W.3d 405 (Ky. 2015). The Board of Governors of the Kentucky Bar Association (KBA) by a unanimous vote of 20-0 (one member absent) recommended Tejeda's reinstatement. We ordered further review pursuant to SCR 3.370(9). The parties filed briefs and this matter stands submitted. Following review, we have determined to accept the Board's recommendation to reinstate Tejeda upon the conditions set forth herein.
Tejeda was licensed to practice law in 1996. His bar roster address is listed 102 Sundae Drive, Richmond, KY 40475-8540, although he currently does not reside in Kentucky. Tejeda initially worked in private practice handling bankruptcy, divorce, and criminal defense matters. After two years in private practice, he worked as a patrol agent for the United States Border Patrol. After four years as a patrol agent, Tejeda moved to the Dominican Republic to teach English and study Spanish. In 2005, Tejeda returned to Kentucky after accepting a position as an assistant Wayne County Attorney. After working in that position for one-and-a-half years, Tejeda was employed as an assistant Madison County Attorney for one year. He then returned to Wayne County and worked as an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for six months before resuming his employment as an assistant County Attorney. Tejeda remained in that role until he was terminated in 2012 following a fatal motor vehicle collision which underlies the present reinstatement proceeding.
Tejeda, by his own admission, is a recovering alcoholic. His problems with alcohol began in his late high school and early college years. Tejeda realized he needed to address his problems with alcohol after meeting a group of missionaries from Los Angeles while he was living in the Dominican Republic. Soon afterward, he became involved with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Tejeda maintained sobriety for approximately one-and-a-half years until he stopped participating in AA consistently. He alternated between several months of sobriety and several months of alcohol use.
On November 21, 2006, Tejeda was arrested for DUI in Laurel County. He was eventually found guilty of DUI in 2010 following the entry of an Alford[1]plea. Between 2007 and 2012, Tejeda returned to AA sporadically and continued his pattern of alternating between sobriety and alcohol use.
On April 19, 2012, Tejeda was involved in a fatal motor vehicle collision in Monticello, Kentucky. He had consumed "a lot" of vodka at approximately 6:30 a.m. after drinking on and off the entire night before. Around 9:00 a.m., Tejeda was driving under the influence of alcohol at an excessive rate of speed and struck another vehicle. The collision resulted in the death of the other driver, Jarus Helen Neal.
Tejeda was indicted for vehicular homicide. He filed a motion to suppress the blood test results, which the trial court granted. The Commonwealth's appeal from the suppression order was dismissed by the Court of Appeals as untimely. Under a subsequent agreement with the Commonwealth, Tejeda pled guilty to an amended charge of reckless homicide, a class D felony, and entered pre-trial diversion. Pursuant to SCR 3.166, Tejeda was automatically suspended from the practice of law on September 11, 2013, the day after the entry of his guilty plea.
On December 3, 2013, the KBA Inquiry Commission charged Tejeda with violating SCR 3.130-8.4(b) by "committing a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness and fitness." Tejeda answered the charge and later filed a motion for a negotiated sanction in this Court pursuant to SCR 3.480(2). The KBA filed a response in support of Tejeda's motion. This Court granted the motion for a negotiated sanction and issued an opinion and order suspending Tejeda from the practice of law for four years retroactive to September 11, 2013, the effective date of the automatic suspension following his guilty plea, or until he was finally released from probation and parole. Tejeda, 456 S.W.3d at 407. We additionally ordered Tejeda to remain drug and alcohol free and to continue ongoing monitoring by the Kentucky Lawyer Assistance Program (KYLAP). Id.
While on probation, Tejeda completed a six-month impatient treatment program at The Healing Place. He became a peer mentor and eventually a peer mentor supervisor, helping other patients who entered the program. While receiving in-patient treatment, Tejeda also took advantage of vocational training and obtained a commercial driver's license (CDL) and ultimately obtained employment as a truck driver.
While continuing his work as a truck driver, Tejeda also received training to become a certified drug and alcohol counselor. He is licensed to practice counseling in Kentucky and Georgia. Tejeda also received specific training and became a DUI education instructor. From the time of his suspension until the present, Tejeda has been continuously employed as a certified alcohol and drug counselor or as a commercial truck driver.
On August 13, 2018, Tejeda pro se applied for reinstatement. Tejeda had maintained sobriety throughout his probation in the criminal case and was finally released from supervision on September 17, 2018.[2]
While the investigation into Tejeda's application was pending, Tejeda experienced a relapse in October 2019. He attributed the relapse to a personal financial crisis and academic difficulties.[3] By his own words, Tejeda's addiction to alcohol was "immediately . . . back out of control." Tejeda was drinking approximately twelve beers a day for the duration of the relapse. He denied driving while intoxicated during the period of relapse.
In December 2019, Tejeda attended the Kentucky Law Update (KLU) in Lexington where he saw KYLAP Director Yvette Hourigan. Hourigan subsequently requested a meeting with Tejeda and Tejeda's KYLAP monitor. At the meeting, Hourigan indicated she smelled alcohol on Tejeda at the KLU. Tejeda lied and denied consuming alcohol. Following this incident, Tejeda recommitted himself to participation in AA and has remained sober. However, Tejeda did not disclose his relapse to anyone in his support system.
Approximately eighteen months later, on July 31, 2021, after retaining counsel to represent him in the pending reinstatement proceedings, Tejeda apologized to Hourigan and disclosed the circumstances of the relapse to the Character and Fitness Committee.
The Character and Fitness Committee conducted a formal hearing on Tejeda's application on March 8, 2022. At the conclusion of the hearing, Chief Bar Counsel and the applicant, by counsel, conferred and Bar Counsel agreed to recommend Tejeda's reinstatement conditioned on him submitting to immediate enhanced monitoring with KYLAP. Enhanced monitoring consists of weekly in-person contact with an impartial monitor, random drug testing, and a requirement to enter a 5-year KYLAP agreement with continued enhanced monitoring should reinstatement be granted. Bar Counsel withdrew its agreement to conditional reinstatement after Tejeda advised he could not comply with immediate enhanced monitoring because he was living out-of-state and on the road as a commercial truck driver. On July 5, 2022, the Character and Fitness Committee approved Tejeda's reinstatement but conditioned such approval on Tejeda immediately submitting to enhanced monitoring as previously negotiated by Bar Counsel.
Tejeda appealed to the Board of Governors and sought to remove the requirement of immediate enhanced monitoring. Bar Counsel opposed Tejeda's reinstatement before the Board. Following a hearing, the Board unanimously recommended Tejeda's reinstatement and concluded the imposition of enhanced monitoring on a pre-reinstatement basis was unduly burdensome due to the nature of Tejeda's employment as a truck driver. Instead, the Board recommended the imposition of enhanced monitoring within ninety days of reinstatement in addition to any conditions arising from Tejeda's prior KYLAP agreement which would continue under a new agreement for a period of five years.[4] The parties did not file a notice of review under SCR 3.370(8), but this Court notified the parties of our decision to review the decision of the Board pursuant to SCR 3.370(9).
Under Kentucky law, the suspension or disbarment of an attorney is not necessarily a permanent disability. In re May, 249 S.W.2d 798 (Ky. 1952). Our predecessor Court explained the principle:
We are not willing to say that no matter what a disbarred attorney's subsequent conduct may be; no matter how hard and successfully he has tried to live down his past and atone for his offense; no matter how complete his reformation-the door to restoration is forever sealed against him. Even...
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