ATTORNEY GRIEV. COM'N OF MARYLAND v. Hamby

MURPHY, Chief Judge. Ruben Irvin Hamby, a member of the Maryland Bar since 1986, was charged by the Attorney Grievance Commission, acting through Bar Counsel, with violating Rule 8.4(b) and (d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which provides: “It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to: ****** “(b) commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; ****** “(d) engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.” Pursuant to Maryland Rule BY9 b, we referred the matter to Judge Warren B. Duckett, Jr. of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. After a hearing, Judge Duckett found that on November 26, 1987, Hamby, upon being observed by a uniformed police officer as he stood near a bank window, ran from the officer and attempted to discard “a hypodermic syringe with needle intact.” Hamby resisted the officer’s efforts to arrest him; those efforts included attacking the officer with the syringe, after which “a wrestling match ensued until the officer received assistance from three other officers.” The evidence showed that Hamby’s syringe contained cocaine. On December 16, 1988, Hamby pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court for Howard County of possessing cocaine and drug paraphernalia in violation of Maryland Code (1987 Repl.Vol.), Article 27, §§ 287 and 287A, resisting arrest, and assault and battery upon an officer.

On February 7, 1989, ⁶⁰⁹ the court stayed the entry of judgment against Hamby pursuant to Code, Article 27, § 641. Hamby was placed on five years’ probation and required, as a condition of probation, to serve 200 hours of community service, and to participate in a program established by Richard Vincent, Director of Lawyer Counseling Services of the Maryland State Bar Association. Judge Duckett found from the evidence that Hamby had attended an in-patient treatment program for alcohol abuse in 1983. The evidence further showed that Hamby began injecting cocaine at age 16; and “had tried everything including heroin, methadone, LSD and marijuana.” Judge Duckett found, and Hamby acknowledged, that he was addicted to the use of cocaine and was a recovering alcoholic.

Judge Duckett concluded that Hamby had violated Rule 8.4(b) and (d). He said that the evidence was uncontradicted that Hamby “has embarked [upon] and is continuing an energetic seven day a week remedial program regarding his obvious impairment and abuse of controlled dangerous substances”; that the remedial program “includes Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings on a daily basis, weekly sessions with Dr. Joseph Chambers, a psychiatrist, and additional weekly meetings with Richard B. Vincent.” Bar Counsel took no exceptions to Judge Duckett’s findings. Pointing to Hamby’s long history of criminal involvement with numerous controlled dangerous substances, he suggests that Hamby’s use of cocaine was in its most potent and abhorrent form — intravenous injection. Moreover, Bar Counsel invites our attention to the fact that Hamby displayed “an outrageous disregard for the duties and authority of the police officer” who arrested him.

Bar Counsel urges that a one year suspension from the practice of law would be an appropriate sanction for Hamby’s misconduct, with reinstatement being conditioned upon Ham-by’s continuing treatment under the supervision of Mr. ⁶¹⁰ Vincent, and total abstinence from all mood influencing substances. Hamby excepted to that part of Judge Duckett’s findings that he had violated Rule 8.4(d). He did so on the ground that he was not properly charged by Bar Counsel with violating this, rule because the Review Board did not specify that Bar Counsel should file this charge, as required by Rule BV9 (a). On the matter of sanction, Hamby states that since the day after his arrest in 1987, he has maintained daily contact with Mr. Vincent and fulfilled all of Vincent’s stringent requirements for the rehabilitation of chemically dependent attorneys.

Hamby says that since his arrest, he has remained abstinent from drugs and alcohol; that he has maintained daily contact with Mr. Vincent; that he has performed almost 300 hours of community service; that he has submitted to random tests for drugs and alcohol, all of which have been negative; that he has and continues to undergo therapy on a weekly basis with Dr. Chambers; and