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Geoffrey C. Cross (WSBA No. 3089, admitted 1968), of Tacoma, was reprimanded following approval of a stipulation by order of a hearing officer on February 8, 2011. This discipline is based on conduct involving a conflict of interest.
In February 2008, Mr. Cross appeared in King County Superior Court for a client who was charged with Theft of a Motor Vehicle. The client told Mr. Cross that his relative, FS, who had multiple felony convictions, was the perpetrator of the crime. FS had been charged a month earlier with Theft of a Motor Vehicle in Kitsap County Superior Court. Mr. Cross directed an investigator to obtain documents from the Kitsap County Court file, which he provided to his client and the police. Mr. Cross told the police that it was FS who had committed the crime in the King County case.
Later, FS was arrested in Kitsap County on a warrant issued in the Kitsap County case. FS asked Mr. Cross to represent him. Mr. Cross told FS he could not represent him due to a conflict of interest, but an associate employed at his firm, where Mr. Cross was the principal, could represent him. Mr. Cross represented his client until he was discharged by the client in December 2008, and his associate represented FS until May 2009. Neither Mr. Cross’ client nor FS gave their informed consent, confirmed in writing, to any conflict of interest related to the two cases. Even after Mr. Cross was discharged, his client continued to maintain that FS was the perpetrator of the crime in the King County Court matter, and the victim later identified FS as the perpetrator of that crime.
Mr. Cross’s conduct violated RPC 1.10(a), stating that, while lawyers are associated in a firm, none of them shall knowingly represent a client when any one of them practicing alone would be prohibited from doing so by Rules 1.7 [Conflict of Interest, Current Clients] or 1.9 [Duties to Former Clients].
Scott G. Busby represented the Bar Association. Mr. Cross represented himself. Malcolm L. Edwards was the hearing officer.
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