In Re Calaway

Opinion

THE COURT.

This is a proceeding to review a recommendation of the Disciplinary Board of the State Bar of California that petitioner be disbarred. Petitioner, who was admitted to the practice of law in 1956, was convicted in federal district court of violating 18 United States Code section 1955 (conducting, financing, managing, supervising, directing or owning an illegal gambling business) and 18 United States Code section 371 (conspiring to violate § 1955). The conviction was affirmed on appeal and is now final. (Although petitioner has applied for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, based on alleged incompetence of trial counsel, the pendency of this petition does not affect the finality of his conviction.) On May 1, 1975, we referred the matter of petitioner’s conviction to the State Bar for hearing, report, and recommendation on the question whether the facts and circumstances surrounding the commission of the offenses involved moral turpitude or other misconduct

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warranting disciplinary action. (See Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 6101, 6102; Cal. Rules of Court, rule 951(c), (d).)

A local administrative committee, following a hearing, found that petitioner “was actively involved in the criminal conspiracy of which he was convicted, such activity including financing, managing, counselling, and supervising an illegal gambling operation.” The committee further found that petitioner “willfully and knowingly” engaged in the conspiracy and illegal gambling operation; that he made his legal services available to further the conspiracy and to counsel and protect his coconspirators; that he assisted in locating customers for the game and ultimately received some of the proceeds thereof; and that he improperly used conservatorship funds to finance the operation. The committee concluded that the offenses of which petitioner was convicted involved conscious and willful acts of moral turpitude on petitioner’s part, and recommended that he be disbarred.

The disciplinary board voted to approve and adopt substantially all of the committee’s findings and also specifically found that the facts and circumstances surrounding petitioner’s offenses involved moral turpitude. The board, by a vote of nine to four, recommended that petitioner be disbarred. (The dissenters would have recommended less severe punishment.) Petitioner now contends that the record fails to support the findings of fact, that the offenses at issue did not involve moral turpitude, and that the recommended discipline is excessive.