A former veterans law judge and a former attorney-advisor at the VA will be indefinitely suspended from the practice of law for participating in a highly offensive and discriminatory email chain, the top Maryland court said.
James Andrew Markey and Charles Leonard Hancock, who both worked for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in the Department of Veterans Affairs, used their official e-mail addresses to participate in an e-mail chain they called “the Forum of Hate.” They sent numerous e-mails about their colleagues that were highly offensive and evinced bias based upon race, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, and socioeconomic status, the Maryland Court of Appeals said.
When the VA discovered the emails, it terminated Markey, a veterans law judge, and Hancock voluntarily retired as an attorney-advisor.
Among many e-mails cited by the court, Hancock referred to the chief veterans law judge, a Black woman, as a “ghetto hippopotamus” and “a despicable impersonation of a human woman” who should have “her cervix yanked out of her” by Hannibal Lecter and fed to her.
Further, Markey said a colleague went to a gay bar with a “creepy” clientele, and both expressed pleasure at the fact that Hancock’s son’s Little League team didn’t contain players of Black, Hispanic, or Asian descent, the court said.
“These were not spontaneous, impulsive, or out-of-character remarks or isolated incidents,” the court said. “Markey’s and Hancock’s misconduct clearly had the potential to undermine the work of the Board and the public’s confidence in that work, as well as damage the public’s perception of the legal profession, the Board, the Department, and the federal government at large.”
They “glaringly” violated the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct because they “knowingly engaged in conduct demonstrating bias and prejudice that was prejudicial to the administration of justice and not in pursuit of legitimate advocacy,” the court added. It rejected Hancock’s argument that his emails were never meant to be shared with anyone outside the email chain as immaterial.
“We are essentially writing on a blank slate, and what we decide in this attorney discipline proceeding will become precedent for the sanctions imposed for similar misconduct by lawyers in the future,” because there’s no Maryland case “directly on point with respect to the appropriate sanction,” the court said.
Merely reprimanding Markey or Hancock would “effectively be communicating to members of the Bar of Maryland and the public that making these types of inappropriate and offensive remarks is not serious misconduct,” the court added. An indefinite suspension on the other hand “makes clear to every Maryland lawyer and the public that such conduct is unacceptable,” Judge Shirley M. Watts said.
The case is Attorney Grievance Comm’n v. Markey, Md., Misc. Docket AG No. 5, 6/26/20.
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