The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania suspended a lawyer for five years, with all but one year deferred, for misconduct in connection with a breakup with his girlfriend. See Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Casale, No. 2435 (Aug. 30, 2018). The parties’ joint petition summarized the lawyers’ bizarre conduct.
The defendant broke up with his girlfriend in Septemeber 2015. A few months later, he broke into her garage at night and placed a GPS tracking device in the back of her car, and an audio recording device “under her front seat so that he would be able to hear her conversations.” He used the devices to track her movements and to “discover who she was dating.” In March of the following year, the ex-girlfriend discovered the devices and called the police. Ultimately, the lawyer pleaded guilty to the unlawful interception of oral communications and received a criminal sentence of five years’ probation.
The respondent’s conduct violated rules 8.4(b) (criminal act) and 8.4(c) (conduct involving “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation).
