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City attorney admonished
Published Thursday, November 13, 2008
A page of a letter to Attorney Rolf Nycklemoe informing him of an admonishment issued against him by the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility
Fergus Falls’ city attorney has received a slap on the wrist from a state attorney’s ethics board.
Attorney Rolf Nycklemoe was admonished by the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility for the manner in which he handled the case of a Fergus Falls teen who was burned by fellow students in a shop class at Fergus Falls High School.
Martin Cole, director of the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibilty, confirmed Wednesday that his office formally admonished Nycklemoe on Aug. 18, for the way the assault case of James David Christopherson was resolved in Otter Tail County District Court in October 2007.
Attempts to reach Nycklemoe Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful.
According to court records: Aaron Johnson was in a shop class at Fergus Falls High School in April 2007, when James David Christopherson and another student burned Johnson with a butane lighter. Christopherson was charged in Otter Tail County Court and scheduled to go to trial in November 2007.
Nycklemoe, who was prosecuting the case as Fergus Falls’ city attorney, reached a plea agreement with Christopherson, who pleaded guilty to fifth-degree assault.
Johnson claims he was never consulted about the Oct. 24, 2007, plea agreement and in a meeting with Nycklemoe on Oct. 30, he expressed his opposition to the agreement.
It’s that opposition that stands as the basis of admonishment against Nycklemoe because the attorney allegedly failed to inform the court of Johnson’s opposition prior to the court’s accepting and signing the deal on Nov. 2, 2007.
The ethics panel found that Nycklemoe’s “conduct in failing to either make the court aware of the complainant’s objection to the plea agreement or to provide the complainant with an opportunity to express his objections directly to the court, violated Rule 8.4(d) of the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct,” the board said in a ruling provided to The Journal and other media outlets by Johnson’s mother, Debra Johnson.
The panal also stated that the admonishment is a form of private discipline issued for isolated and non-serious misconduct. It stated that the incident appears limited to this matter with no clear evidence that misconduct caused undo predjudice to Johnson or the judicial system.
The Johnsons went to the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility at the suggestion of Nycklemoe at a Feb. 4, 2008, meeting of the Fergus Falls City Council where Debra Johnson appeared to complain about the city attorney’s performance.
A day later Fergus Falls Mayor Russell Q. Anderson drafted a letter to Aaron Johnson on behalf of the city council supporting the actions of Nycklemoe in the case.
“This wasn’t about trying to put Christopherson behind bars,” Debra Johnson said Wednesday. “This was about handling the case right.”
“If (Christopherson) isn’t going to go to trial, the least Nycklemoe should have done is called Aaron and offered him the opportunity to offer an objection,” Johnson said.
“It’s the minimum that he’s supposed to do — and he didn’t do that,” she said.
The Johnson family also feels strongly about sending a message to teens who might partake in bullying.
“We wanted to go to trial so this would stay on (Christopherson’s) record so kids will know that if they do this kind of thing it won’t go away,” she said. “This had nothing to do with us wanting him to do time.”
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