D-Board Beefs Up Recommendation for Suspension of Ex-Centre County DA
Parks Miller faces charges stemming from ex parte communications she had in seven matters, most of which involved a Centre County judge as well as charges stemming from the creation of a fictitious Facebook account.
December 07, 2018 at 06:02 PM
3 minute read
Former Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller should be suspended for one year and one day, the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board has recommended. The conduct at issue included having ex parte communications with judges and using a fake Facebook account to “snoop” on suspects.
The board's recommendation, which was filed Thursday, is an increase over the three-month suspension that the hearing committee recommended in the case. The state Supreme Court must make the ultimate decision regarding Parks Miller's disciplinary case, but if the high court imposes the lengthier suspension, it will add more than a few months, since attorneys suspended for longer than one year need to petition for reinstatement before they can begin practicing again.
Parks Miller faces charges stemming from ex parte communications she had in seven matters, most of which involved retired Centre County Judge Bradley Lunsford, as well as charges stemming from the creation of a fictitious Facebook account, which made friend requests to defendants and friended the pages of several establishments suspected of selling bath salts.
According to the disciplinary board's 45-page recommendation, the Facebook issue raised a novel question in Pennsylvania of whether a prosecutor violates disciplinary rules by “engaging in a covert activity through the use of social media.”
Although the hearing committee had determined that the conduct was not a violation but only showed “lack of care” by Parks Miller, the disciplinary board said the conduct rose to the level of a violation.
“[Parks Miller] knowingly created a fake social media persona, provided access to a fake Facebook page to her staff, and indicated that the page should be used to 'masquerade' and 'snoop' around on Facebook,” the filing said. “The Facebook page created by [Parks Miller] and disseminated to her staff was fake, and constituted fraudulent and deceptive conduct.”
The board was further critical of Parks Miller for failing to obtain any ethics consults before creating the fake account and noted that a 2009 ethics opinion from the Philadelphia Bar Association Professional Guidance Committee had determined that simply concealing a “highly material fact” as to why contact is being made on social media could constitute an ethics violation.
In her defense during the proceedings, Parks Miller had contended that the Facebook page was used in an effort to curb the sale of bath salts in the county.
Parks Miller's attorney, James J. Kutz of Post & Schell, said the disciplinary board's recommendation was “completely unexpected.”
“We were very disappointed to see the board reject the recommendation of the hearing committee, who sat and heard the evidence, and the recommendation of the disciplinary counsel, which brought the action, both of whom thought a three-month suspension was the appropriate action,” Kutz said. “I don't see any explanation for why the committee's recommendation was so aggressively rejected.”
Kutz noted that, under prior counsel, Parks Miller defaulted in the case, so she was unable to contest most of the facts. He also added that, since Parks Miller has been out of office since the end of 2017, Parks Miller will likely spend much more than 366 days without practicing as an attorney.
He said he expects Parks Miller will ask for further argument before the Supreme Court and will request that the justices reject the board's recommendation.
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