Pro Se Inmate Scores 7th Circuit Win, Says His Own Lawyer Was Targeted by the Feds, Too
A pro se prison inmate has notched a federal appeals court victory in a drug and weapons case, winning a ruling from the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a trial judge erred by not looking more carefully at a claimed conflict of interest on the part of his defense attorney.
Attorney Andrea Gambino never disclosed to him that she, too, was being investigated by federal prosecutors at the time that she defended him in the Northern District of Illinois case, contends Fabian Lafuente. While it is not absolutely established that this allegation is true, sufficient factual support for the contention is provided by Lafuente in his motion to require further investigation by a federal district court on remand, a three-judge appellate panel held in a opinion (PDF) Friday.
Among other evidence, Lafuente attached to his motion an ethics complaint from the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. It accuses Gambino of helping a former client convicted in a drug case and deported to Mexico return illegally to the United States. As a result of this conduct, she was allegedly fired by the federal public defender’s office.
Although Gambino admitted much or all of this and consented to discipline by the ARDC (a one-year suspension with all but three months stayed), the government argued that the ARDC case established an ethical violation rather than a criminal probe of Gambino.
But “Lafuente’s allegations, if believed, entitle him to relief,” the appellate panel writes. “If a criminal defendant’s attorney is under investigation by the prosecutors of her client, there is a conflict.”
Hat tip: Wisconsin Law Journal.
