Former prosecutor Angus Lee reprimanded by state bar

MOSES LAKE — A Washington State Bar Association disciplinary board voted to reprimand former Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee for an ethics violation committed while he was in office.

The 12 member WSBA board met on May 6 to hear Lee’s appeal to WSBA hearing officer Terrence Ryan’s findings that Lee acted unethically in three different instances when he directed former Deputy Prosecutor Albert Lin to review potential criminal matters.

Lin filed an ethics complaint with the WSBA in January 2010, shortly after losing a special election against Lee for prosecutor. Lee went on to fire Lin after the election. Lin claimed Lee forced him do unethical work at the prosecutor’s office and fired him unfairly. In response, the bar association requested a disciplinary hearing. Lee’s hearing took place at the end of January 2015 and hearing officer Terrence Ryan filing his findings in February 2015.

In a 7-5 vote, the disciplinary board reversed Ryan’s conclusion that Lee took no steps to avoid potential conflicts of interest when he assigned a case involving former prosecutor’s office employee Cathleen Neils and Elisia Dalluge to Lin. In June 2009 Dalluge alleged that Neils filed a false report in regard to an alleged violation of a no-contact order by Dalluge. When Lee assigned the matter to Lin, Lin brought up the fact that a conflict of interest was present.

“It was not proven by a clear preponderance of the evidence that Respondent (Lee) engaged in a conflict of interest by being involved in the Neils/Dalluge matter,” reads the disciplinary board’s order.

The dissenting disciplinary board members said Lee, prior to assigning the Neils/Dalluge matter to Lin, personally made a criminal report against Neils, filed counterclaims against Neils in her wrongful termination suit against him and was aware that Lin and Neils were friends. They state that Lee assigned the matter to Lin,”in a knowing attempt to coerce the deputy prosecutor to act in a situation in which there was a clear conflict of interest.”

Also in a 7-5 vote, the disciplinary board agreed with Ryan’s finding that Lee did not take steps to avoid potential conflict of interest in a matter concerning a hit-and-run incident involving Grant County District Court Judge Richard Fitterer in June 2009. Fitterer was involved in a minor collision with another car near Quincy and did not stop at the scene of the collision. Police later stopped Fitterer in Ephrata, but the judge was not arrested nor subsequently charged with any traffic violations or misdemeanors.

The incident came to light at an election event in October 2009, when Lee was asked by a citizen why his office hadn't done anything about the accident. After the event, Lee gave a copy of the police report to Lin and requested he make a charging decision on the matter. Ryan found that Lee asked Lin to make that decision knowing that it would create a conflict of interest, given the fact that the prosecutor's office routinely practiced in Fitterer’s courtroom.

The disciplinary board recommended that Lee should be reprimanded for the incident. The dissenting members on the board disagreed with the reprimand sanction however and argued for Lee to receive a six-month suspension.

“Misconduct in the course of public duties by an officer of the court who has held himself out to be uniquely qualified, to be a publicly elected prosecuting attorney, leads invariably to a breach of the public trust and undermines the public’s trust in the legal profession. The conduct is a knowing violation causing injury or potential injury,” stated board member Kathryn E. Berger.

Another ethics complaint against Lee involving a September 2009 incident was dismissed before the May 6 meeting to avoid appeal, according to the WSBA. The case involved the prosecutor’s office receiving a police report in September 2009 regarding a complaint made by Dalluge alleging perjury against a John Doe. Lee assigned the matter to Lin for a charging matter, and Lin declined to review it because of a reference to Neils in one of the case documents.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.