The California State Bar is not commenting on whether it would discipline a California attorney who gave an electric shock to a witness during testimony in a Utah state court. The attorney, Don Howarth, gave an expert witness a trick pen with a AAA battery that shocked him. The point was to show, contrary to the expert’s testimony, that the same current could give a shock to cows grazing on land above underground power cables.
As Corey Adwar of the Business Insider reported last week, Howarth was formally sanctioned by the court for “battery of a witness”–i.e. not the AAA battery, but the intentional contact with the witness without consent. The attorney’s tactic was “far removed from the decorum and professionalism required by attorneys, and has no place in a court room,” the court ruled, restricting Howarth’s involvement in the case and fining him $3,000.
The California State Bar, however, is not yet commenting. “If and when public disciplinary charges are filed, they would appear on our website on the attorney’s profile page,” a representative of the Bar told Breitbart News, adding that discipline would only be initiated as the result of a complaint filed with the Bar, and that all investigations of complaints to the Bar were considered confidential until formal findings had been made.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.