Hutson v. Okla. Bar Ass'n (In re Hutson)

458 P.3d 1102

In the MATTER OF the REINSTATEMENT OF Janet Bickel HUTSON to Membership in the Oklahoma Bar Association, and to the Roll of Attorneys

Janet Bickel Hutson, Petitioner,

v.Oklahoma Bar Association, Respondent.

SCBD# 6672

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

FILED FEBRUARY 4, 2020

¶1 After the petitioner, Janet Bickel Hutson, (petitioner/Hutson) pled guilty to criminal charges of offering false evidence, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and perjury, the Court struck her name from the roll of attorneys on September 25, 2007. On July 25, 2018, Hutson petitioned for reinstatement. Upon a de novo review,¹ we hold that the petitioner did not meet the burden of proof necessary for reinstatement. Nevertheless, we propose recommendations to pursue her commitment to recovery of substance abuse and financial issues and suggest that she re-apply after at least six months of following the recommendations. She is also ordered to pay remaining costs of $1999.50.²

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶2 Hutson, a former police officer, became a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association on September 25, 1991, after graduating from law school. Her post-law school graduation work consisted primarily as an attorney in the District Attorney's office covering various counties including Muskogee, Cherokee, Wagoner, Adair, and Sequoyah. She also worked in private practice, and was appointed as a special prosecutor by the Oklahoma Attorney General in 1995 to prosecute the notorious Baby Luke case in Pittsburg County.

¶3 According to the petitioner, she suffered from anorexia off and on her entire adult life. In the early 2000's, her life began to tailspin and she started abusing cocaine. She attributed her tailspin to her traumatic childhood due to her father's alcoholism and criminal behavior, her deteriorating marriage, depression, anxiety, anorexia, her youngest son joining the military and being deployed to Iraq, and her youngest granddaughter being born with spina bifida. In 2003, she sought treatment in Arizona for anorexia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression, and in 2005, she took an overdose of Xanax.

¶4 The incident giving rise to her suspension occurred on February 22, 2005, when she attended a drug bust at a search scene. While at the scene, she placed a bag of methamphetamine in her purse. After the drug scene, investigators reported that drugs were missing from the crime scene, Hutson admitted that she discovered the missing drugs in her purse. She insisted that they stuck to the rubber gloves that she was wearing when she took them off and put them in her purse. She adhered to this story, testifying before the Multicounty Grand Jury on September 22, 2005.

¶5 As the investigation continued, it became apparent that the petitioner took the drugs from the scene, and altered the contents of the bag.³ Consequently, she faced a perjury charge in Oklahoma County, and charges of offering false evidence and possession of controlled dangerous substance in Wagoner County, Oklahoma.⁴ On September 8, 2006, she pled guilty to the charges, received a five (5) year deferred sentence, and paid $3500.00 in each county for a total of $7000.00 in fines and court costs.

¶6 Thereafter, the Bar Association initiated a grievance against the petitioner resulting from her guilty pleas. On March 26, 2007,⁵ the Court issued an order of interim suspension, effective immediately pursuant to Rule 7.3 of the Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings.⁶ While disciplinary proceedings were pending, the petitioner submitted a resignation on July 3, 2007, waiving any right to explain her conduct or submit mitigating evidence. She also agreed to make no application for reinstatement prior to the expiration of five years. The Court issued an order approving her resignation on September 25, 2007.

¶7 On September 14, 2011, the petitioner's criminal records were ordered expunged in both Wagoner and Oklahoma Counties. Since her resignation, Hutson has had several jobs, primarily in law offices, as a paralegal/legal assistant or an office manager. She denies having practiced law, giving legal advice, or having any clients since her resignation. She offers affidavits from several court clerks who affirm that they have not received any evidence that Hutson has practiced law since March of 2007.

¶8 In 2016, Hutson filed a Petition for Reinstatement, but voluntarily withdrew it after she became overwhelmed with the process, realized she was not ready for reinstatement, and decided that she needed independent attorney representation which she could not afford. She submitted another Petition for Reinstatement on July 25, 2018. The Professional Responsibility Tribunal (PRT) held a reinstatement hearing on October 17th and 18th, 2018.

¶9 At the hearing, ten people testified, with sixty exhibits admitted. The first to testify (via telephone) was Penny Ross Miller, a licensed professional counselor. The counselor also provided a letter dated October 5, 2018, which verified that the petitioner began weekly therapy sessions on September 21, 2018. The letter noted that Hutson had attended three counseling sessions, and had agreed to maintain weekly sessions for the foreseeable future. The counselor's testimony expanded on the letter and identified an additional counseling session that Hutson had attended.

¶10 Another client of the counselor had recommended that Hutson seek counseling and attend AA meetings. Hutson maintains that she has remained free of illegal substances for 13 years and had recently completely abstained from alcohol. The recent counseling appears to be the only counseling the petitioner has had since her resignation in 2007. The counselor encouraged AA attendance if any type of narcotic abuse was an issue.

¶11 Next, District Judge Jeffrey Payton, attorney Brett Smith, and attorney Amy McFarland testified in support of her reinstatement regarding the many years they have known petitioner. They believe in the petitioner's moral character, legal skills and knowledge of the law, and they all supported reinstatement. Smith also sponsored the Muskogee County Bar Association's unanimous resolution of support for Hutson's reinstatement. Hutson's current employer, attorney William Connor II, also praised her current moral character and described her current work product as spectacular. Additionally, the petitioner offered seven letters from other judges and lawyers who supported her reinstatement.

¶12 Emett Hutson, the petitioner's husband, testified that he had never witnessed her using illegal drugs or abusing alcohol and that she had stopped drinking completely after agreeing to participate in Lawyers Helping Lawyers. The petitioner's son, Master Sergeant Christopher Bickel, also supported his mother, noting that she was remorseful, accepting of responsibility, and that she had high moral character. He described her as having a much better work-life balance than she did at the time she lost her license.

¶13 Clint Johnson, who served as a supervising agent District 27 Drug Task Force at the time of the incident giving rise to Hutson's resignation, gave additional details about the drug raid. He testified that the bag of methamphetamine that Hutson returned was not of the same type/quality that she took from the crime scene. He also testified that Hutson told him he should tell anyone that asked that she did not intentionally take the drugs. Ultimately, all of the drug charges against the individuals who were arrested in the raid were dropped due to the tainted evidence.

¶14 The Bar's investigator, Jamie Lane, testified regarding her investigation of the petitioner. She identified some omissions in her first petition for reinstatement such as an arrest in Arkansas in 2011 for public intoxication as well as two civil actions which had been filed against Hutson. She indicated that the two civil actions were also not disclosed in the second petition for reinstatement and that information regarding Hutson's student loan debt had not been updated since 2015. She confirmed that the petitioner had no outstanding and unpaid monetary obligations to the Bar.

¶15 Finally, the petitioner testified, recounting her employment history, education, and the events which led to her criminal prosecution. She testified that she submitted to hair follicle tests in 2005, 2007, 2009, and on September 26, 2018, at the request of the Bar, and all of those tests were negative for drugs. At the Bar's suggestion she reached out to Lawyers Helping Lawyers, and attends therapy. She has attended 17 sessions of AA, contacts her Lawyers Helping Lawyers mentor three times a week, attends a Lawyers Helping Lawyers meeting once a month, and consumes no intoxicants.

¶16 Hutson kept current on the law by reading Bar Journals since 2008 and completing 86.5 hours of continuing legal education in 2018. She accepts full responsibility for everything that has happened, but still maintains that she did not intentionally remove the drug evidence from the scene. Nevertheless, she also confirms that she was under the influence of drugs at the time the events occurred. Hutson also explained her financial situation as well as the Arkansas public citation and the two civil lawsuits she omitted in the reinstatement application.

¶17 Hutson testified that she did not intentionally omit the Arkansas public intoxication and two civil lawsuits, but that it was an oversight. She also stated that when the Bar questioned her about them, she readily admitted them. The public intoxication occurred in the summer of 2011, as a result of her being a passenger on a motorcycle driven by her intoxicated husband.

¶18 The omitted lawsuits, and additional lawsuits corroborate the petitioner's account that her life was in a tailspin beginning in the early 2000's. For example, she was involved in a medical debt collection in 2000, a foreclosure in 2002, a small claims indebtedness in 2003, a malpractice case in 2003 which was...