Top court suspends two convicted lawyers

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Without hearing arguments, the Court of Appeals has immediately suspended two lawyers who have criminal convictions.

College Park lawyer Walter Lloyd Blair was convicted in December on federal charges of money laundering, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, false statements and failure to file a tax return. He helped the relative of a dead drug dealer launder the money the dealer left behind.

In an unrelated case in Dorchester County, Cambridge lawyer Grason John-Allen Eckel, a 2002 candidate for state Senate, was convicted in February of second-degree assault, fourth-degree sex offense and false imprisonment — all misdemeanors — in connection with a drug-fueled run-in with a woman at his law office last summer.

Both Blair and Eckel have appeals pending.

“Both these gentlemen have been convicted of serious crimes, and the rules permit quick action by the Court of Appeals through Rule 16-771,” said Glenn M. Grossman, Bar Counsel to the Attorney Grievance Commission.

Usually, attorneys who are brought up on disciplinary charges are referred to a circuit court judge who assesses the facts and the law. The Court of Appeals then takes up the case, hears arguments and chooses what sanction, if any, to impose.

But in cases involving serious crimes, Bar Counsel can file a petition for fast discipline based on the conviction. The court can temporarily suspend the attorney based only on filings by Bar Counsel and the attorney.

Rule 16-771 actions do not preclude further, more permanent disciplinary action later, and indeed, Grossman said Bar Counsel will initiate those proceedings when and if Blair and Eckel’s convictions are upheld on appeal.

Both men were suspended by the Court of Appeals on Wednesday.

Convicted of money laundering

According to a 2008 indictment in Blair’s case, an unnamed drug dealer gave a female relative a safe containing tens of thousands of dollars in drug money. Around Oct. 25, 2003, the dealer’s girlfriend was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. The dealer and the girlfriend’s son were missing and were later found shot to death as well.

The relative, who is unnamed in the indictment, contacted Blair and asked for legal advice about the safe. The indictment charged that Blair helped the woman form a corporation to purchase real estate with the drug money. He also told her he would help her use the money to hire lawyers, including himself, for the dealer’s drug associates.

The indictment also said that in representing one of the drug dealer’s associates, Blair requested permission to practice in Virginia federal court for that case only and represented that he had never been reprimanded.

In fact, Blair had been reprimanded in West Virginia for obstructing justice and charged criminally with intimidating witnesses, the indictment said. (U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein declined to comment on the Blair case and his office said it does not have information on the West Virginia matter.)

Blair was convicted after a jury trial. In April, he was sentenced to 97 months in prison. The case is on appeal to the 4th Circuit.

His attorney, Kenneth Michael Robinson of Washington, D.C. declined to discuss the case or speak in detail about the grounds for appeal, though he said the appeal relates to the judge’s decision to allow all of the charges against Blair to be tried at once.

In a one-page order signed by Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, the Court of Appeals suspended Blair “with the invitation for reconsideration of this matter if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rules in the Respondent’s favor.”

Midnight encounter

Eckel, the other attorney suspended this week, was arrested just after midnight on Aug. 1. A police officer heard a woman yelling for help, traced the sound to Eckel’s office and found Eckel pinning the woman to the couch, prosecutor Yves Archey said.

The woman said Eckel, whom she knew, picked her up, drove her to his office, used drugs with her and then tried to rape her. Eckel was charged with attempted second-degree rape and attempted second-degree sex offense, second-degree assault, fourth-degree sex offense, false imprisonment and prostitution.

Eckel filed counter-charges against the woman, maintaining that he was merely trying to grab back a purse full of money she had stolen from him.

Archey prosecuted the case against Eckel first, and when the judge convicted the lawyer on some of the counts, the prosecutor dropped Eckel’s charges against the woman.

In what Archey called a “travesty,” Eckel received no jail time, only a fine when he was sentenced in March.

Eckel is appealing his convictions to the Court of Special Appeals on several grounds. Among other things, he claims the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof and that his arrest was unlawful because the police ignored exculpatory evidence.

“It’s my position that I’ve suffered with an unjust conviction,” Eckel said Thursday when informed of the top court’s decision. “The idea that I would assault anyone, particularly a woman, is ludicrous.”

Eckel has a previous disciplinary record; he was reprimanded in 2006 after he pleaded guilty to cocaine possession.