GOP complaint accuses Hatch of ethics breach

08/23/2006

The state attorney general, who is the DFL’s choice for governor, is accused of breaking lawyers’ rules, making false statements and disrupting court proceedings.

Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
Last update: August 23, 2006 – 9:07 PM

Republicans filed a professional ethics complaint Wednesday against Mike Hatch, the state attorney general and DFL-endorsed candidate for governor, contending that his actions in a dispute with a Ramsey County judge violated lawyers’ rules against making false statements and disrupting court proceedings.

In a complaint to the state Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, state GOP chairman Ron Carey asked for “appropriate disciplinary action” against Hatch “due to his apparently unethical conduct.”

The office can issue private sanctions or recommend to the state Supreme Court more serious public penalties, up to disbarment. Office director Martin Cole said Wednesday that serious cases are seldom disposed of in fewer than 90 days, which would put resolution of the GOP complaint beyond the Nov. 7 general election.

Spokeswoman Leslie Sandberg said Hatch would not respond to “political grandstanding” from his partisan rivals. She said that Carey and state Rep. Jeff Johnson, R-Plymouth, his party’s candidate for attorney general who called a State Capitol news conference to publicize the complaint, have no direct knowledge of the case.

Carey’s formal complaint draws on court orders written by Judge William Leary and affidavits signed by Hatch and his solicitor general, Lori Swanson, in a dispute centering on two consumer-protection cases filed by the attorney general’s office and assigned to Leary’s court.

Hatch has sought to remove Leary from the cases for mishandling them, an allegation to be heard today before Ramsey County’s chief judge, Gregg Johnson. Leary has resisted removal and accused Hatch of threatening him with news media coverage. Hatch has denied the judge’s accusations.

Carey said documents signed by Leary and Swanson, a DFL candidate to succeed Hatch as Minnesota’s top legal officer, contradict Hatch’s sworn statements.

“Through his repeated dishonesty and reckless behavior, Mike Hatch has undermined the integrity of the office of attorney general,” Carey said in a news release, adding that a false affidavit would constitute “a serious breach of public trust.”

What role politics?

The release was distributed at the news conference, where Johnson downplayed any partisan political motivation. “There’s been enough politics, game-playing and unprofessional behavior in the AG’s office,” he said. “I’d like to see the AG’s office have the same stellar reputation it had 20 or 30 years ago—under Democrats, by the way. This is not a partisan issue.”

Johnson said he rejected some Republicans’ calls to air the controversy before the House Civil Law Committee, which he heads. That, he said, would have “no purpose other than pure politics,” while the state ethics probe will be conducted by “an impartial body.”

DFL state chairman Brian Melendez responded that the complaint is “a shameless abuse of the justice system for political purposes.” Melendez branded Johnson’s involvement as “self-serving and self-righteous meddling.”