October 12, 2006

ID: public reprimand for prison's lawyer

From the Spokesman-Review's "Eye on Boise" (also noted in this month's Idaho state bar magazine):

Deputy Idaho AG sanctioned for reading inmate legal mail in ‘97

A deputy Idaho attorney general, Stephanie Altig, has been reprimanded by the Idaho State Bar in a case stretching clear back to 1997, for reading privileged letters between Idaho prison inmates and their attorneys – who at the time were suing the state over retaliating against prisoners for trying to access courts...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals... held that “department counsel’s actions in this case do not pass even the most lenient ethical ‘smell test.’”

"Why it took so long I don’t know," said Jack van Valkenburgh, head of the Idaho ACLU. Former Idaho Attorney General Tony Park, who serves on the ACLU of Idaho legal committee, said, "It has taken far too long, over five years since Judge Boyle made his findings and the court of appeals expressed its disgust with the deputy attorney general’s conduct."

2 Comments:

That Guy said...

Wow, that is messed up.

Even more distressing is the fact that this took so long to deal with. Sounds like the Bar needs to get its work done faster.

brewerburns said...

They only reprimanded her? That seems lenient to me.