2020 Investigative Summary 10

INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED LACK OF CANDOR

OPR received a referral from another Department entity regarding allegations that a senior Department attorney failed to apprise his supervisor of his interactions with a law enforcement agency and a source concerning the subject matter of an ongoing high-profile investigation.  Although the attorney eventually recognized the need to inform his supervisor, who was overseeing the investigation, of his involvement and provided some information about the general topic, the senior Department attorney failed to provide a complete disclosure of his role as a conduit of information between the source and the law enforcement agency.  As a result, the supervisor was unaware of the attorney’s activities related to the investigation until learning of them through other means.

OPR opened an inquiry, which it converted into an investigation, focusing on the attorney’s incomplete disclosures to his supervisor about his ongoing activities related to the source and the law enforcement agency.  Following its investigation, OPR concluded that the attorney committed reckless professional misconduct by providing materially incomplete information to his supervisor, which constituted a misrepresentation.  OPR’s misconduct finding was upheld by the Professional Misconduct Review Unit and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.