Lawyer Suspended for Harboring Boyfriend Who Abused Her

An Oklahoma lawyer who suffered years of physical and mental abuse from her boyfriend was suspended for one year by the state’s highest court for harboring him after he didn’t show up for a hearing relating to domestic abuse charges.

Despite the sanction, the Oklahoma Supreme Court made clear that its sympathies lay with Shelley Lynne Levisay. The “compelling mitigation in this record reflects that Respondent acted, and failed to take action, more as a victimized partner than as a lawyer,” the court said in its Oct. 6 opinion.

Levisay was an assistant district attorney who prosecuted domestic violence cases ...