Kentucky Bar Association v. Guidugli

John J. Guidugli (plaintiff) was an attorney in Kentucky and a member of the Kentucky Bar Association (defendant). Before attending law school, a misdemeanor charge for endangering the welfare of a child was filed against Guidugli, and he submitted an Alford plea. Guidugli’s case was handled by a juvenile court because all child-endangerment cases fell within the juvenile court’s exclusive jurisdiction. Guidugli fulfilled the conditions of his conditionally discharged one-year sentence, which involved surrendering his teacher’s certificate; not holding any position involving juveniles; receiving sexual-offender counseling; not having contact with his victim, his foster child; and not serving as a foster parent in the future. The record of Guidugli’s plea was sealed by the juvenile court. After graduating from law school, Guidugli took a position in a county attorney’s office, where he was given oversight of that office’s juvenile division. Guidugli’s former victim learned of Guidugli’s employment and alerted the local newspapers. Guidugli had not disclosed his Alford plea on his bar application, in violation of an applicant’s obligation to show complete candor in submitting information regarding an applicant’s character and fitness. As a result, Guidugli was charged with failure to disclose the information and found guilty of this ethical violation by the Board of Governors of the Kentucky Bar Association after a hearing presided over by a trial commissioner. Guidugli had explained that he was told both by the attorney who represented him in relation to the Alford plea and by his brother, who was a district judge, that he would never need to disclose information that had been sealed. Indeed, a Kentucky law in force at the time provided that with the sealing of a record, the case was deemed not to have ever happened and that a person could respond that no record existed if asked. The trial commissioner noted that Guidugli had failed to disclose the information in reliance on this advice. However, the trial commissioner also noted that Guidugli’s record was never expunged, nor did he ever request that it be expunged. Kentucky law was not clear on the difference between a record that was sealed and one that was expunged. Guidugli was given only a 30-day suspension from practicing law with the possibility of reinstatement after a new character-and-fitness evaluation. The Kentucky Supreme Court requested review.