Legal Ethics

Former ACLU Lawyer Disbarred After Child Porn Plea

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Sep 5, 2008, 08:37 am CST

The former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has been disbarred after his guilty plea last year to child porn charges.

In July 2007, Charles Rust-Tierney pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography, The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times reported. A statement of facts filed with the plea said Rust-Tierney used his home computer to access and download child porn on the Internet, according to a Justice Department press release (PDF). Many images showed children under the age of 12 engaging in sex with adult males, prosecutors said.

Rust-Tierney consented to the disbarment by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, leaving sealed the details of the ethical violations, the blog story says.