In a similar vein:
Lawyer, client had sex in jail, sources say
By Ian Ith
The career of a veteran public defender could be in jeopardy after King County Jail guards reported they'd discovered the attorney in a jail interview room having sex with her client — a man facing trial in a triple slaying, according to sources.
Officials connected with the case declined to discuss or acknowledge it publicly.
Steve Thompson, director of the King County Jail, would say only that "we have a situation that's an internal investigation at this point."
According to several criminal-justice sources, attorney Theresa Olson, a 15-year veteran of The Defender Association, the county's largest public-defense agency, was seen having intercourse with Sebastian Burns in a conference room in the jail Saturday morning.
Olson, 43, was meeting with Burns, 26, to discuss his pending trial in King County Superior Court on three counts of aggravated murder in the 1994 slaying of Tariq and Sultana Rafay and their daughter, Basma, in their Bellevue home.
The Rafays' son, Atif Rafay, also is charged in the deaths but is not represented by Olson or her office.
Olson did not respond to several requests for comment yesterday. Neither did her boss, Bob Boruchowitz, the director of The Defender Association, which has about 90 lawyers who take public contracts to represent criminal defendants who can't afford their own attorneys.
King County prosecutors also declined comment.
The matter came to the attention of jail workers when a sergeant noticed odd movement in the interview room, sources said.
Normally, visitors to the jail don't have contact with inmates because they are separated by heavy glass. But because Olson is Burns' attorney, they were allowed to meet in a semiprivate conference room, sources said.
Those familiar with the incident said it will have serious ramifications for Olson, as well as throw another twist into a murder case that has dragged on for eight years.
A hearing in Burns' case is set for tomorrow morning before King County Superior Court Judge Charles Mertel, and sources said prosecutors will demand that Olson and The Defender Association be taken off the case if the defenders don't volunteer to step aside.
Meanwhile, the county's Office of Public Defense, which oversees the assignment of public-defense contracts, also will investigate.
"This event allegedly involves a public defender, and, if so, that defense agency will be held accountable to us," said Sherry Hamilton, spokeswoman for the county Department of Community and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Public Defense.
The Washington State Bar Association, which handles professional discipline, declined to say whether it had received a formal referral in the matter. It usually takes months for complaints about attorneys to be investigated and be released to the public, said spokeswoman Judy Berrett.
Barrie Althoff, professionalism counsel for the bar association and former chief of disciplinary matters, said the ethical rules for lawyers in Washington are clear: No sex with clients.
"The lawyer has the choice: Do you want to be a lover, or do you want to be a lawyer, because you can't do both," Althoff said.
In 2000, the state Supreme Court changed the rules of ethics for attorneys to specifically prohibit lawyers from having sex with clients. Before that, the rules weren't so clear, and the bar association usually used conflict-of-interest rules to punish attorneys.
The change came in the case of attorney Lowell Halverson, a former bar president who had an affair with a woman he was representing in a divorce case. Halverson was suspended from practicing law for six months.
Althoff said he couldn't predict what punishment might befall a public defender in this kind of situation, but possibilities range from as light as a censure to a suspension of up to two years, to disbarment.
As a public defender, Olson has earned a reputation for aggressively pursuing clients' cases.
High-profile clients have included Mathias Bachmeier, a former King County sergeant convicted of first-degree murder, and Mark Bender, who killed his wife and children in 1980 and left their remains in a Federal Way storage locker for 12 years.
She also has been outspoken on death-penalty issues and drug-prosecution policy. If convicted, Burns will not face the death penalty.
Last year, when Burns and Rafay were brought back from Canada after an extradition fight that lasted several years, Olson said, "I'm anxious to show that my client is innocent."
Burns and Rafay had gone to Vancouver, B.C., soon after Rafay's family was found slain.
Seattle Times staff reporter Michael Ko contributed to this report. |
