LAW WEEK COLORADO

A courts blogger has won the right to videotape an attorney disciplinary hearing over the protest of the office that prosecutes attorney misconduct. Sean Harrington, who operates the watchdog Web site KnowYourCourts.com, petitioned Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero for permission to film the hearing of attorney Alison Maynard, accused of violating the state rules of attorney conduct. Maynard denies the allegation, saying the state overreaches and selectively pursues attorneys to target.

KnowYourCourt’s cameraperson will be allowed to tape all proceedings except bench conferences. Taping is restricted to prosecution and defense attorneys; witnesses, court personnel, or the hearing board, including the presiding disciplinary judge, can’t be filmed.

This order is more restrictive than one granted last year to Law Week Colorado, and Lucero, in his latest order, did not explain why. Law Week was allowed to videotape the witnesses and the hearing board in an unrelated disciplinary matter. Law Week did not apply for expanded media coverage in the Maynard case.

The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel wrote that Harrington did not meet the definition of a news-gathering agency. An agency attorney wrote, “Mr. Harrington … operates a website in which he posts statements critical of ‘the divorce industry’ and the attorney regulation process. Hosting a website does not constitute a ‘news gathering or reporting agency.’ Mr. Harrington can take notes and report the hearing without a camera or video operator. For this reason, Mr. Harrington’s personal request for expanded media coverage should be denied.”

Lucero’s order and OARC’s objection are published below.

Order Re Expanded Media Coverage

Maynard_OARC

Almost two years ago — fittingly, on April Fool’s Day — Sean Harrington filed a complaint with the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel requesting an investigation of U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham on the grounds of moral turpitude, Westword reports. Harrington, the operator of the KnowYourCourts.com website and a critic of Colorado’s judicial system, recently received this response from Assistant Regulation Counsel Lisa Frankel noting that Harrington’s complaint against Nottingham is still being held in “abeyance.” Frankel provided no additional comment. Nottingham resigned and now works in private practice in Denver.