By Maurice Possley
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 30, 2005
The state agency that oversees lawyer conduct in Wisconsin has been asked to investigate Rep. James Sensenbrenner for sending a private letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago demanding a longer prison sentence for a drug courier.
Barbara McFarland, a registered nurse from Middleton, Wis., and her sister, Deborah McFarland, a retired attorney in Edgewater, Md., sent a letter on Thursday to the Office of Lawyer Regulation in Madison.
The complaint alleges that Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, violated attorney conduct rules that prohibit a communication with a judge without notifying all parties in the case. Sensenbrenner's letter was sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, which prosecuted the case, but was not sent to Steve Shobat, the drug courier's attorney.
Jay Apperson, counsel to a Judiciary subcommittee who was dismissed after the Tribune disclosed the letter, has conceded that it was "a mistake" not to send the letter to Shobat, who obtained a copy only after it was placed in the court file.
Keith Sellen, director of the lawyer conduct office in Madison, said any grievance brought to his office would get a preliminary investigation before a decision was made on whether to conduct a formal investigation.
Sensenbrenner's Wisconsin law license is in inactive status. He has not been the subject of any public disciplinary findings, according to Sellen.
The grievance follows the filing of a similar complaint with the House ethics committee by Alliance for Justice.
In June, Sensenbrenner, whose committee controls the federal judiciary's budget, sent a letter to Chief U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Joel Flaum, demanding the court overturn a decision affirming a 97-month prison term for Lissett Rivera and impose a 120-month term.
The McFarlands say in their letter: "We believe that Mr. Sensenbrenner should be barred from practicing law in Wisconsin in the future and should no longer be considered a member of the bar in good standing, active or inactive."