Disbar bid back in state court

No jurisdiction, U.S. judge says

A Maumelle attorney’s efforts to transfer a disbarment petition against her to federal court failed Monday when U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ordered the case remanded to state court.

The Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct filed the disbarment petition against Teresa Lynette Bloodman of Maumelle on April 1, 2016. The petition, which says Bloodman has violated 176 rules of professional conduct, was amended for the fifth time Sept. 29, 2017.

On May 15, the day after her disbarment hearing began, Bloodman transferred the case to federal court, effectively stopping the proceeding from going forward. She said the case needed to be in federal court because Stark Ligon, the committee’s director, and others conspired to violate her federal constitutional rights based on “discriminatory animus.”

Bloodman is black, and she contends that the eight-member committee imposed an interim suspension of her law license without giving her an opportunity to be heard. She alleged that Ligon and the committee members, all but one of whom are white, treated her differently than white attorneys who have been accused of misconduct.

In support of his motion to have the disbarment case sent back to state court, Ligon attached the 175-page petition that cites numerous reports about insufficient funds in Bloodman’s law office account, outlines suspicions that she used the trust account for personal matters and contends she dishonestly described her experience

to potential new clients. The petition says that one of those clients was facing the death penalty and that now six members of the client’s family have filed for bankruptcy in efforts to pay Bloodman’s fees.

Baker said in an order filed Monday that the case was improperly transferred to federal court because Bloodman tried to transfer it more than two years after it was filed, “well outside the 30-day window” allowed. Baker said she

also lacks jurisdiction over Bloodman’s challenges to the disbarment petition. She said the racial discrimination allegations weren’t a part of the disbarment petition but were raised by Bloodman in her defense, and that state disciplinary actions don’t fall under the U.S. Constitution.

Baker also said that Bloodman “fails to point to any state law or other equally firm prediction that indicates she will be prevented from enforcing her rights in state court.”