BISMARCK - An attorney who accepted large sums of cash delivered in Cracker Jack boxes and Altoid tins from a client he had sex with asked the state Supreme Court Wednesday not to suspend his law license.
Charles Chinquist, whose office is in Fargo, said his consensual sexual affair with Deborah DuBord did not start until his representation of her in a custody case was over. The money was payment for legal services in a 1996-2000 custody case, he said.
A panel of the court's Disciplinary Board found that the payments he accepted violated the lawyers' code of conduct. They recommended Chinquist's license be suspended for 30 days and that he pay costs of $5,300.
Chinquist writes in his brief that he would accept a public reprimand.
Brent Edison, assistant counsel for the court's Disciplinary Board, argued that the panel's punishment was too lenient. Chinquist should be suspended for two years - at the very least, six months, he said.
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The panel erred when it ruled Chinquist's inappropriate relationship with DuBord did not constitute a conflict of interest, Edison argued.
Edison said Chinquist knew his client was emotionally vulnerable. But the hearing panel decided that DuBord had motives for the affair and that she took actions that encouraged Chinquist to violate the professional code. Chinquist, in his brief, called DuBord "aggressive." He noted she was one of the women who had been involved sexually with Fargo gynecologist Alan Lindemann, whose license was suspended for two years as a result.
Edison said the payments DuBord made "evolved into a kind of game" in which she dropped off money orders and containers of cash in amounts ranging up to $5,000 at Chinquist's Moorhead home or Fargo office. One $5,000 payment was for legal bills of convicted Moorhead murderer Michael Gianakos, whom she had come to know while Chinquist represented him.
Under the lawyers' code, fees must be reasonable, not excessive and a basis for the amounts or rate have to be discussed; this was not done. Chinquist had stopped sending her bills or documenting time spent on her case. What records he did have, Chinquist shredded when his license was suspended in 2004 for not paying state and federal income taxes, Edison wrote.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830
