Court suspends lawyer's license

A former Newport, Wash., attorney who avoided a jail sentence for his role in a cocaine ring has had his law license suspended for four months for malpractice.

Dennis R. Scott, 52, also will be on probation for 1-1/2 years after his suspension ends Oct. 20.

While he is on probation, Scott is to be monitored by his employer, Sandpoint attorney Brent Featherston.

The Washington Supreme Court also ordered Scott to have two doctors provide reports on his "physical and mental status."

The Supreme Court action was based on an agreement Scott negotiated with the Washington State Bar Association. Bar association documents say Scott's misconduct was mitigated by the fact that he "suffered from substance abuse during the period in question."

Another mitigating factor and a substantial portion of the proposed disciplinary action are being kept secret under state laws that limit public scrutiny of disciplinary actions against lawyers.

Scott was arrested in March 1999 in a regional drug sting that broke a cocaine ring operated by Oldtown, Idaho, resident Herbert Dinger. Although Scott insisted at first that he merely represented Dinger, he later admitted conspiracy to deliver cocaine and possession of the drug.

While Dinger got 21 months in prison for his guilty plea in Washington to selling cocaine and possessing it with the intent to sell, Scott was sent to a drug treatment program for a year. After he completed the program, the charges against him were dismissed.

Scott's disciplinary agreement with the association makes no mention of the criminal charges against him - unless it's in the portion that's blacked out in the Supreme Court file. Instead, the discipline is based on four cases he mishandled as part of his former Newport practice.

Barrie Althoff, chief disciplinary counsel for the bar association, said the association's "usual practice" is not to bring bar charges against lawyers who avoid criminal convictions through "deferred prosecutions."

A deferred prosecution allows for dismissal of criminal charges if a defendant successfully completes a year of probation.

Charges against Scott were dropped after he completed a drug rehabilitation program and other conditions of his enrollment in the "drug court" program of Spokane County Superior Court Judge Terry Eitzen. Scott had to admit his guilt to get into the program, but never was required to make a formal plea to the charges.

Scott is not licensed in Idaho, but had been working for the Featherston law office in Sandpoint before his suspension. The malpractice for which he was suspended occurred earlier, when Scott had his own law office in Newport.

The Washington State Bar Association said Scott engaged in a pattern of obtaining court orders without notifying the affected parties as required and without providing relevant information to judges.

In fact, the stipulated agreement says Scott was accused of giving judges false information in an effort to obtain favorable orders. In three cases, he claimed to have the support of opposing attorneys and litigants who later said that wasn't true.

In a fourth, Scott got an order blocking the suspension of a client's driver's license without telling the state attorney handling the case. He said he wasn't aware of a change in the law 2-1/2 years earlier that eliminated automatic stays of driver's license suspensions when appeals are filed.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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