Editor’s Note: Law Week Colorado edits court opinion summaries for style and, when necessary, length.
Scott Landry represented a plaintiff in a case involving a motor vehicle accident. The lawsuit was against the other driver and the driver’s employer. In April 2022, Landry subpoenaed communications between the employer and the employer’s insurer. In response to Landry’s subpoena, the insurer produced documents that unintentionally included a letter from the employer’s lawyer. The letter was intended for the defendants and the insurer, and it contained an analysis of the case, including the facts of the case, potential damages, the defense strategy and an opinion about the value of the claim. The first page of the letter contained a bolded disclaimer: “ATTORNEY CLIENT AND ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT PRIVILEGED.”
Landry saw the disclaimer but reviewed a portion of the letter to gain information about what opposing counsel knew in the case. Landry didn’t promptly notify opposing counsel about the letter, instead deposing a representative of the driver’s employer before opposing counsel learned Landry received the letter. Landry was ultimately disqualified from the case based on his review of the letter.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Landry’s stipulation to discipline and publicly censured him, effective April 6.
On April 26, 2022, Jonathan Haas pleaded guilty under a deferred judgment to third-degree assault, a class-one misdemeanor. The guilty plea arose from an incident in October 2021 when Haas, while driving his vehicle in Denver, engaged in a verbal dispute with a cyclist traveling along the shoulder of the road. During the incident, Haas sprayed water from a water bottle at the cyclist through the passenger-side window. Haas and the cyclist continued the verbal dispute, and Haas turned his vehicle to the right, striking the cyclist and throwing him off of his bicycle. Haas pulled his vehicle over, exited it and approached the cyclist. Haas and the cyclist then had a physical altercation. Denver police officers arrested Haas at the scene.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Haas’ stipulation to discipline and suspended Haas for nine months, with six months to be served and three months to be stayed upon Haas’s successful completion of a one-year probation with conditions. The suspension takes effect April 10.
In November and December 2020, while serving as a senior legal advisor to the then-President of the U.S. and as counsel for his reelection campaign, Jenna Ellis made multiple misrepresentations on national television and on Twitter regarding the 2020 presidential election.
According to the disciplinary opinion, among the misrepresentation were:
- On Nov. 13, 2020, Ellis claimed that “Hillary Clinton still has not conceded the 2016 election.”
- On Nov. 20, 2020, Ellis appeared on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business and stated: “We have affidavits from witnesses, we have voter intimidation, we have the ballots that were manipulated, we have all kinds of statistics that show that this was a coordinated effort in all of these states to transfer votes either from Trump to Biden, to manipulate the ballots, to count them in secret . . .”
- On Nov. 20, 2020, Ellis appeared on “Spicer & Co.” and stated, “with all those states [Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia] combined we know that the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that.”
- On Nov. 21, 2020, Ellis stated on Twitter under her handle @JennaEllisEsq., “ . . . SECOND, we will present testimonial and other evidence IN COURT to show how this election was STOLEN!”
- On Nov. 23, 2020, Ellis appeared on an MSNBC show and stated, “The election was stolen and Trump won by a landslide.”
- On Nov. 30, 2020, Ellis appeared on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business and stated, “President Trump is right that there was widespread fraud in this election, we have at least six states that were corrupted, if not more, through their voting systems. . . We know that President Trump won in a landslide.” She also stated, “The outcome of this election is actually fraudulent it’s wrong, and we understand than when we subtract all the illegal ballots, you can see that President Trump actually won in a landslide.”
- On Dec. 3, 2020, Ellis appeared on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business and stated, “The outcome of this election is actually fraudulent it’s wrong, and we understand than when we subtract all the illegal ballots, you can see that President Trump actually won in a landslide.”
- On Dec. 5, 2020, Ellis appeared on “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Fox News and stated, “We have over 500,000 votes [in Arizona] that were cast illegally . . .”
- On Dec. 15, 2020, Ellis appeared on “Greg Kelly Reports” on Newsmax and stated, “The proper and true victor, which is Donald Trump . . .”
- On Dec. 22, 2020, Ellis stated on Twitter, through her handle @JennaEllisEsq, “I spent an hour with @DanCaplis for an in-depth discussion about President @realDonaldTrump’s fight for election integrity, the overwhelming evidence proving this was stolen, and why fact-finding and truth—not politics—matters!”
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Ellis’ stipulation to discipline and publicly censured Ellis, effective March 8.