THE chair of the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee, Democrat Rep. Celina Babauta is asking the CNMI Bar Association to investigate a member of Republican Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ defense team, attorney Viola Alepuyo, for “highly questionable behavior,” and “take disciplinary actions to include the suspension of her license to practice law.”
Alepuyo represented key employees of the Office of the Governor during the JGO investigation on the governor’s public expenditures, the outcome of which became the basis of the articles of impeachment passed by the Democrat-independent-led House of Representatives by a vote of 15 to 4 with one abstention on Jan. 12, 2022.
In her letter to CNMI Bar Association President Charity Hodson, Esq., Babauta said Alepuyo has served on the governor’s fundraising committee, “Friends of Ralph,” since approximately 2017.
Babauta said Sen. Karl King-Nabors, who served as Senate presiding officer of the impeachment matters at the time in question, sent fellow Republican Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider a letter on March 18, 2022 stating that Alepuyo is King-Nabors’ “close family friend.”
“Notably, this close relationship was clearly not disclosed when he served as a chairman of the Senate committee that drafted the Senate impeachment rules, nor when Ms. Alepuyo entered her appearance. In view of these relationships with Governor Torres and Senator King-Nabors, Ms. Alepuyo committed egregious violations of the Model Code of Professional Conduct on February 13, 2022,” Babauta told the bar president.
First, Babauta said, as an attorney who has represented the Office of the Governor and its employees, Alepuyo engaged in ex parte communications with the Senate and possibly its designated special counsel, Joey McDoulett, with respect to the drafting and promulgation of the Senate impeachment rules.
This legal assistance involved drafting the substantive and procedural rules for her client, and was totally one-sided and ex parte, Babauta said.
“For context, the Senate impeachment rules were not shared and made available for public comment prior to their consideration and adoption by the Senate committees that worked on them with Ms. Alepuyo. So, while Ms. Alepuyo had access to the draft rules and undisputedly collaborated with the committees on their substantive content, the members of the JGO and the public were denied access,” Babauta added.
“This violation of the Open Government Act was exacerbated when the committee-adopted rules were not made officially available until after the Senate, as a whole, adopted them after the Senate agenda was amended on the day of session, to include them without any prior official notice and opportunity to comment, again in violation of the 72-hour notice requirement of the Open Government Act,” Babauta said.
As counsel for the Office of the Governor, a long-time president of the governor’s fundraising committee, and a close family friend of Senator King-Nabors, Babauta said, Alepuyo knew or should have known that ex parte contact with the Senate presiding officer and the special counsel regardless of when the Senate rules that she helped draft were actually adopted, was ethically prohibited, Babauta added.
She said even assuming that ex parte was permissible based on the adoption of the rules on March 3, 2022, Alepuyo still violated Model Rule 1.7(a)(2).
By providing legal assistance to Senator King-Nabors, who was serving as the presiding officer of the Senate proceedings at the time of the Feb. 13, 2022, contacts, “it is not unreasonable to consider that an attorney-client relationship existed between the presiding officer and Ms. Alepuyo,” Babauta said.
“She then failed to disclose the existence of this attorney-client relationship with the presiding officer to anyone, including Governor Torres,” Babauta added.
She said Senator King-Nabors has publicly claimed that there were no official rules governing ex parte contacts until the official rules were adopted.
However, at best, “this pre-existing attorney-client relationship should have materially limited her ability to represent the governor at the time she entered her formal appearance on behalf of the governor on March 8, 2022,” Babauta said.
At worst, she added, Alepuyo and the governor knew that she had established an attorney-client relationship with what was essentially the presiding officer in the same matter in which she had entered an appearance.
She was representing one client, the governor, in front of another client, Senator King-Nabors, who was the presiding officer at the time, Babauta said.
Significantly, she added, because of these actions Senator King-Nabors was compelled to request that the governor withdraw Alepuyo as his counsel.
“Although it would seem highly unethical to remain as counsel in the impeachment matter based on the foregoing undisputed facts, to my knowledge this request has been ignored as Governor Torres has not officially withdrawn Ms. Alepuyo as his personal attorney for the matters before the Senate,” Babauta said.
She also noted that McDoulett was retained as special counsel by the Senate president, to assist in Senate impeachment matters that included the drafting of the operative rules.
“To the extent that McDoulett and Alepuyo worked together or collaborated on the drafting of the Senate Rules, given the circumstances of the impeachment proceedings, and the fact that he essentially played the role of counsel to the presiding officer, this contact was also unethical, and the Bar Association may also consider investigating his misconduct and the extent to which McDoulett should also face disciplinary action,” Babauta said.
“I understand and appreciate the magnitude of these allegations. The legal counsels assigned to the JGO have advised that I may obtain separate legal counsel to assist me on this matter because these concerns are outside the parameters of their scope of legal representation. They have cautioned me to be mindful of the severity of the charges that I have raised, but I have done my due diligence and I remain convinced that this is the proper course of action. Accordingly, I respectfully urge you to address this complaint as soon as possible considering the serious violations of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and rules regarding the ethics of the CNMI Bar Association,” Babauta said.
