The former Johnson County prosecutor has lost his license to practice law while the Indiana Supreme Court considers a disciplinary matter against him due to his recent felony convictions.
On Friday, the Indiana Supreme Court suspended Brad Cooper’s license to practice law in the state. The move comes just more than two weeks after Cooper was sentenced. He had pleaded guilty to felony charges of criminal confinement, identity deception and official misconduct and a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery relating to a March incident at his home. His then-fiancee was the victim.
The immediate suspension order was signed by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush.
Attorneys being convicted of felonies is rare.
Across the state, two attorneys faced interim suspensions of due to felony convictions in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. In the previous two fiscal years combined, 10 attorneys faced interim suspensions after being convicted of felonies, according to the Indiana Supreme Court annual reports.
Cooper’s interim suspension was expected, as the Indiana Rules of Court say that an attorney licensed in Indiana who is found guilty of a felony or misdemeanor must notify the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission and the court can suspend the attorney while considering further disciplinary action. The disciplinary commission is an arm of the state supreme court that is responsible for investigating and prosecuting claims of misconduct against lawyers.
“The interim suspension shall continue until further order of this Court or final resolution of any resulting disciplinary action, provided no other suspension is in effect,” the court’s order said.
Cooper did not dispute the allegations of the disciplinary commission.
In considering attorney discipline, the commission can issue a private admonishment or a public or private reprimand. Or, in more serious cases, it can issue a short- or long-term suspension of the law license or disbar an attorney, meaning the lawyer’s license to practice law is permanently revoked.
Cooper has been a licensed attorney in Indiana since 1993 and was Johnson County prosecutor for the last decade, until he was removed from office as required by law due to the felony conviction.
What role, if any, his disciplinary history will have in future decisions by the Supreme Court regarding his license is unknown.
Cooper has been reported to the disciplinary commission at least twice, and publicly reprimanded once.
In 2017, he was reprimanded by the Indiana Supreme Court for making misleading and inflammatory comments about a judge. The public reprimand was a rare step for the court to take against a sitting prosecutor.
The justices found that he committed professional misconduct when, in 2014, he made comments to the media regarding a northern Indiana judge who decided that convicted murderer Michael Dean Overstreet was not competent to be executed for the death of Kelly Eckart. Under the state’s professional rules of conduct for attorneys, “a lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge.”
Cooper’s comment that drew the reprimand was made when the judge ruled that Overstreet would no longer face the death penalty. Cooper had said he was angry and suspicious when the case was sent to a distant judge who was not accountable to local residents, and that the idea that “this convicted murdering monster is too sick to be executed is nothing short of outrageous and is an injustice to the victim, her mother, the jury and the hundreds of people who worked to convict this animal.”
In 2011, he was the subject of a complaint and report sent to the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission, although no action was taken against him. He had been found drinking in a vehicle being driven by a suspended Franklin police officer, and both men were outside the home of a sheriff’s deputy, looking for a woman that Cooper wanted a relationship with, according to a police report taken at the time.
