Law Life: Attorney gets two-year suspension for exposing himself online

By Pat Murphy The Daily Record Newswire You'd think that a professional death penalty would be in order when a lawyer gets caught attempting to expose himself online to a friend's teenage daughter. Talk about moral turpitude and breach of trust! Bar membership is supposed to be a privilege of the highest order, so this degree of moral transgression should warrant the most serious of consequences, right? But one wayward Georgia lawyer will have the opportunity of resuming his legal career after a mere two-year hiatus. And even then he complains that he is being treated too harshly. Robbie M. Levin began practicing law in 1996. For a time, he worked as a Clayton County public defender. According to court records, Levin developed the unsavory habit of visiting sexually oriented chat rooms and exposing himself to others via a webcam. In 2007, Levin made contact with a 16-year-old girl over the Internet. The teenager happened to be the daughter of a friend. Ignoring the alarm bells that ordinarily should go off when a 36-year-old man wants to have a Facebook relationship with a 16-year-old girl, the teen's mother initially gave her blessing to the online contact. But Levin's communications with the teen evidently crossed the line and the police were called in. So an officer pretending to be the girl began communicating with Levin. During these online communications with the undercover officer, Levin revealed an image of himself via webcam in which he was touching his penis. Revealing rather darker intentions, Levin set up a movie date with the individual he believed to be the girl. Of course, when Levin showed up for the date, he was greeted by police and arrested. Levin later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of distributing obscene material and the like. Levin was sentenced to 40 days in jail -- of which he served 20 -- and probation. His sentence also included 200 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine. The State Bar of Georgia initiated disciplinary proceedings and a special master recommended only a six-month suspension. Apparently, the special master was swayed by testimony by Levin's psychiatrist that the lawyer suffered from depression, that testing indicated he wasn't a pedophile, and that otherwise he was a swell guy. The special master also took into account the fact that Levin voluntarily withdrew from practice for six months while he sought treatment for his mental health problems. As it turns out, though, even the Georgia Supreme Court couldn't stomach the rather light six-month suspension for Levin's misdeeds. Last month, the court upped Levin's suspension to two years. "[W]e find that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors in this case and, as Levin committed acts of moral turpitude involving his fitness to practice law, a longer suspension is appropriate," the court said. It explained that the special master should not have taken into account Levin's voluntary cessation of his practice in deciding the length of his suspension. Moreover, the court was persuaded by the concerns expressed by the state bar in pursuing disciplinary action. It noted that the state bar maintained that "Levin's conduct went beyond matters of personal morality when he manipulated a minor, a person without the maturity to make wise informed decisions, to lie to her parents about her whereabouts, and to meet him at a restaurant. ... "Moreover, the State Bar contends, when Levin sent a live feed video over the Internet of himself masturbating he took what might have been a private act and made it public as he sent obscene material into cyberspace with no regard for where the material might end up, thus demonstrating a startling lack of judgment and self-control as well as an indifference to legal obligations." (In re Levin) In true lawyerly form, Levin whines that the two-year suspension is an injustice. He complained to The New York Law Journal that he's being made an example of because his case received a lot of media attention. Belying his posturing in the disciplinary proceeding that he fully appreciates the nature of his transgressions, Levin bemoaned the fact that "millions of people" send pictures over the Internet every day without being charged with crimes. Sounds to me like disbarment would be quite the appropriate remedy to such misguided notions. Published: Thu, May 12, 2011