Score one for us. Dean and I grew up 1 town away....gotcha !!
High court upholds disbarment
http://www.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi?db=news&view_records=1&id=57951
By Karen Ali
COURTESY of THE Danbury NEWS-TIMES
HARTFORD — The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a Redding
lawyer, saying it was reasonable for a Superior Court judge to disbar
her.
In a decision announced Wednesday, all seven justices agreed Nancy
Burton, a controversial lawyer who practices land use and
environmental law, should be disbarred for professional misconduct
that included representing unwilling clients.
That order stemmed from a case involving Monroe residents who were
trying to stop the use of a rock crusher in the building of a housing
development. They claimed Burton pursued the case in Superior Court
after two of the residents, Joseph and Lenore Sullivan, asked her to
stop. They also claimed that as many as 22 of the plaintiffs were not
even aware they were parties in the lawsuit.
Many of the plaintiffs testified that when they signed a form making
them parties to the case, they thought they were simply signing a
petition.
In the ruling, the justices pointed out Mottolese found many
"aggravating factors," including that Burton had been disciplined
several times before, had acted out of selfish and dishonest motives,
engaged in a pattern of misconduct and submitted false statements to
the judge.
The justices also wrote Mottolese found Burton had represented clients
without being authorized to do so and demonstrated a "lack of
competence to practice law."
Burton called Mottolese a hanging judge who was biased against her and
said the disbarment order was contrived to penalize her for the public
interest work that she has performed.
During the legal arguments in September, Chief Justice William
Sullivan asked Burton repeatedly whether she had gotten a retainer
agreement from the plaintiffs in the Monroe case.
Burton said she had one from the Sullivans, but when pressed about
whether she had an agreement with the other 20 plaintiffs, she replied
she did not have a "formal written one."
She maintained she had followed all the rules and said that 20 of the
plaintiffs knew the Sullivans were paying the bill and were kept
informed of the case.
When asked to comment Wednesday, Burton hung up the telephone.
Burton says she has enjoyed many legal successes, including bringing
several challenges to the operations of the Millstone Nuclear Power
Station in Waterford. In 1999, she persuaded a Superior Court judge to
keep a reactor shut down for a week during the spawning season of the
winter flounder, she said.
Contact Karen Ali
at kali.RemoveThis@newstimes.com
or at (203) 731-3341.
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