Lawyer gets interim suspension after multiple accusations of driving while naked
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An Ohio lawyer has received an interim suspension after his latest arrest for allegedly driving while nude.
The Ohio Supreme Court suspended lawyer Scott Blauvelt of Hamilton, Ohio, in a Sept. 25 order, the Legal Profession Blog reports.
Blauvelt was arrested Sept. 7 on a misdemeanor public indecency charge for allegedly driving nude and “exposing his private parts to a female who believed she was being followed by the subject,” the Butler County Journal-News reported.
It wasn’t the first allegation of nude driving, according to a Sept. 17 motion seeking the interim suspension.
Blauvelt had already received a stayed two-year suspension in June “for chronically driving nude,” according to the motion, filed by the Butler County Bar Association’s grievance committee.
“Blauvelt is unable to conform his conduct to law,” the motion said. “His failed judgment and absent impulse control render him a substantial threat to the public.”
Police officers had observed Blauvelt driving nude on two different occasions in 2018, although the first observation did not result in an arrest, the Ohio Supreme Court said in the June opinion imposing the stayed suspension. He was convicted of public indecency and received a suspended 30-day jail term.
Blauvelt also acknowledged that there had been other occasions when he drove his vehicle while naked that went undetected by authorities.
In another incident, Blauvelt was fired in 2006 for allegedly walking around naked after hours in a government building where he worked as Hamilton city prosecutor. Blauvelt’s lawyer had blamed that behavior partly on medication used to treat depression and seizures and partly on a brain injury that he endured in a car crash.
Blauvelt had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and episodic alcohol abuse, according to the June decision imposing the stayed suspension.
Blauvelt had stipulated to violation of an ethics rule that bars lawyers from engaging in conduct that adversely reflects on fitness to practice law.
The stayed suspension order required Blauvelt to refrain from further misconduct. The new arrest occurred only a month into his disciplinary probation, according to the motion for an interim suspension.
Blauvelt did not respond to a voicemail left by the ABA Journal at a number listed on the Ohio Supreme Court attorney directory.
