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Attorney Grievance Commission of v. Protokowicz6/9/1992
The Attorney Grievance Commission here seeks the immediate suspension of Stanley E. Protokowicz, Jr., pursuant to the provisions of Maryland Rule BV16.
Maryland Rule BV16 a 2 provides:
If an attorney is convicted of a crime to which this Rule is made applicable pursuant to Rule BV16 a 1, whether the conviction results from a plea of guilty or of nolo contendere or from a verdict after trial, and regardless of the pendency of an appeal or any other post-conviction proceeding, the Bar Counsel shall file charges with the Court of Appeals alleging the fact of the conviction and requesting that the attorney be suspended from the practice of law. A certified copy of the judgment of conviction shall be attached to the charges and shall be prima facie evidence of the fact that the attorney was convicted of the crime charged.
Rule BV16 a 1 defines the crimes to which the Rule applies. It includes crimes that are felonies under Maryland law and "any other crime punishable by imprisonment for three years or more."
On 17 January 1992, in the Circuit Court for Harford County, respondent pled guilty to and was convicted of breaking and entering the dwelling house of another, Art.
27, § 31A of the Maryland Code (1957, 1992 Repl.Vol.), and cruelly killing an animal, Art. 27, § 59. He was sentenced to imprisonment for one year on the first count and 90 days on the second count, but the execution of those sentences was suspended, and the respondent was placed on probation for 18 months, with conditions. He was also fined $1,000, and that portion of the sentence was not suspended.
On 12 February, acting pursuant to Rule BV16, the Attorney Grievance Commission filed a petition with this Court asking that respondent be suspended. Respondent, by counsel, filed an answer suggesting that his misconduct "was an isolated aberration of character brought about by an unusual set of circumstances which created tremendous stress and depression . . ." and asking that the petition be denied. Attached to the answer was an unsworn and unsigned statement of facts which we are told was prepared by respondent. Petitioner filed a rebuttal to respondent's answer, and we heard argument from the attorneys for both parties.
The purpose of Rule BV16 is to protect the public from acts of an attorney who has been convicted of certain crimes and to maintain public confidence in the legal profession.
In discussing the purpose of disciplinary proceedings, this Court has said:
ecause 'an attorney's character must remain beyond reproach,' this 'Court has the duty, since attorneys are its officers, to insist upon the maintenance of the integrity of the bar and to prevent the transgressions of an individual lawyer from bringing its image into disrepute. Disciplinary proceedings have been established for this purpose, not for punishment, but rather as a catharsis for the profession and a prophylactic for the public.'
Bar Ass'n of Balto. City v. Siegel, 275 Md. 521, 528, 340 A.2d 710 (1975) (emphasis in original), quoting Maryland St. Bar Ass'n v. Agnew, 271 Md. 543, 549, 318 A.2d 811
(1974). Similarly, we said in Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Reamer, 281 Md. 323, 332-33, 379 A.2d 171 (1977), that
the interest of the public, the legal profession, and the judicial system itself far outweighs the convicted at
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