Sailor’s conviction overturned due to judge’s suspended law license
By Hope Hodge Seck
Thursday, Dec 8
The judge, an experienced former Navy prosecutor, had her license to practice law administratively suspended for failing to pay her annual California bar dues. (Airman 1st Class Joseph Barron/Air Force)
The Navy legal system is making some changes after a military judge’s failure to renew her law license resulted in at least one botched court-martial.
A decision handed down by the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals found that the findings and sentence of Aviation Electrician’s Mate First Class Aaren Painter, a USS Essex sailor convicted in February of photographing unclothed shipmates without their consent, should be set aside and a rehearing authorized. The problem, the appellate court found, was that the military judge assigned to the case hadn’t been eligible to practice law at the time.
“The military judge later revealed that between 1 July 2021 and 10 March 2022, she had been administratively suspended from the practice of law by her licensing agency, the State Bar of California,” Cmdr. Christopher J. Deerwester wrote in a published opinion for NMCCA released Sept. 28.
According to the document, Cmdr. Andrea K. Lockhart, the judge and an experienced former Navy prosecutor, reported she had first learned of her administrative suspension due to failure to pay California bar dues on March 10. She informed the parties in “several cases,” including Painter’s, of the issue on March 30. The California State Bar charges attorneys $515 per year to maintain a current law license.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/12/08/sailors-conviction-overturned-due-to-judges-suspended-law-license/
