A Minnesota lawyer has been sentenced to two days in jail for snorting cocaine in the Winona County Courthouse while defending a client in a terroristic threats trial.
Charles Ramsay, 43, was also fined $2,500, ordered to perform 240 hours of community service and sentenced to 10 years of probation in the third-degree felony drug possession case, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
His conviction, which resulted from a guilty plea last year, will be converted to a misdemeanor if he completes his sentence successfully.
Do lawyers like Mr. Ramsay make other lawyers look bad? Do they only confirm the public's existing negative opinion? No, wait - he was just building his street cred with potential clients.
Ah, the things some people do to get business....
Wow. No, I don't think this behavior is endemic to the legal profession at all. This can't be attributed to all lawyers any more than Lindsay Lohan's behavior can be attributed to all young actors in Hollywood. This is an individual who is an addict with questionable judgment. I don't know of any lawyer personally who has ever done that or would ever do that. It would be totally ridiculous for the public to paint all lawyers with as broad a brush as to say that this one lawyer did something stupid so all lawyers are like him.
ReplyDeleteThat said, ironic how he was defending someone on terroristic threats and he's snorting coke in the courthouse. What kind of crazy world is this becoming, Terri?
Pretty wild, right?
ReplyDeleteI don't know what he was thinking, assuming he was thinking at all. Why would he risk throwing all that education away(sigh)unless, as you suggest, addictive behavior is involved?
Here's his profile from lawyers.com:
Areas of Practice: Criminal Defense; Civil Forfeiture; Admitted: 1995, Minnesota; 1996, U.S., District Court of Minnesota; Law School: William Mitchell College of Law, J.D.; College: University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.S.
And how about the North Dakota lawyer (same ABA Journal article) who paid his client $200 to score some coke for him?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the crappy weather up there that lead these guys astray....
It makes lawyers look human! Not that everyone does coke. But everyone makes mistakes and does something stupid on occasion.
ReplyDeleteehehehehe....Terri, I give up. I just give up. Listen, I was reading the ABA this morning about this D.C. divorce lawyer who sued his client for more fees. Homeboy was asking for close to a million dollars in fees. I ask you this, Terri: how do they get these kinds of clients? Where do they get these types of clients?! I can barely get a client to pay me $5K without grimacing. They are looking at millions in fees. Do I have to join the American Academy of Matrimonial lawyers? Is that were I begin? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteI agree that making stupid mistakes is only human. But snorting coke IN THE COURTHOUSE, IN THE MIDDLE OF A TRIAL, while defending a criminal client?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, David, I think that goes beyond 'stupid' or making a 'mistake', and kicks into 'reckless' territory.
Jeannie, don't get me started on fees... :<O
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