Lawyer is publicly censured for not disclosing teen shoplifting arrest on bar application
Corrected: A New York lawyer has been publicly censured for not disclosing a shoplifting arrest that occurred when she was a teenager on her application for admission to the state bar.
Natasha M. McDougall, a court attorney in the Brooklyn Family Court, had been charged with one count of professional misconduct, the New York Law Journal reports.
In determining the appropriate punishment for McDougall, a disciplinary panel said it had taken into account her “genuine remorse” and the “high regard” with which she is held by her peers and her boss, Brooklyn Family Court Supervising Judge Jeanette Ruiz.
But the panel also noted that “candor” and the “voluntary disclosure of negative information” by an applicant for admission to the state bar are the “cornerstones” upon which a character and fitness determination are built.
McDougall was charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after being caught trying to shoplift clothing at a Bloomingdale’s store in Manhattan in 1993, when she was 16, court documents show. She gave police a fake name and address and was given a desk appearance ticket.
After graduating from City University of New York Law School in 2006, McDougall applied for admission to the state bar, answering “no” when she was asked if she had ever been “cited, arrested, taken into custody, charged with, indicted, convicted or tried for, or pleaded guilty to,” the commission of any felony or misdemeanor.
The shoplifting arrest came to light in 2013, when McDougall was fingerprinted as part of a background check after applying for the Brooklyn court job.
Michael Ross, McDougall’s lawyer, said his client “incorrectly” believed that because she had used a fake name at the time of her arrest that the charges would “somehow be dismissed.” According to the disciplinary documents, McDougall was able to get the charges dismissed and the record sealed.
At a hearing before a special referee during the disciplinary proceedings, Ruiz testified that McDougall had immediately informed her of the result of the background check. She also called the shoplifting incident “aberrational.”
“I have every confidence in Ms. McDougall, confidence in her integrity, honesty,” she said.
New York City Family Court Administrative Judge Edwina Richardson Mendelson also vouched for McDougall’s character.
Correction
Corrected on March 11 to state that Natasha McDougall was arrested and charged for shoplifting, but not convicted, and that the charges were dismissed.
