A prominent Waldoboro attorney will be suspended from practicing law throughout August for violating a court order last year in a domestic violence case.
Maine Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Donald Alexander issued the order Monday in the case of Philip Cohen following a hearing held earlier that day at the Capitol Judicial Center in Augusta. The Maine Board of Overseers and Cohen’s attorney had come to an agreement on the sanction to be imposed.
Cohen is suspended from the legal practice for six months with all but 30 days of that suspension to be suspended if he refrains from additional violations over the next year. The actual suspension will run from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31.
Cohen was sentenced in October 2014 to 30 days in jail and fined $1,000 for the criminal offenses of violating a condition of release. He was given a lesser concurrent sentence for disorderly conduct with an additional $1,000 fine.
He served 19 days of that sentence in the segregation unit of the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset because of his status as an attorney. The remainder of the 11 days was served in the general jail population doing community service projects.
The disciplinary action is based on the agreement that Cohen “engaged in conduct that was prejudicial to the administration of justice.”
Cohen’s attorney Walter McKee said Wednesday that the case is now over. He pointed out that Cohen had no prior disciplinary history and had already paid a steep criminal price. McKee also pointed out that none of the conduct involved clients.
The events leading to the disciplinary action began in November 2013 when Cohen was charged with domestic violence assault. In December 2013, he was arrested again and charged with disorderly conduct and violation of bail conditions after he allegedly telephoned and sent text messages to the same victim.
In July 2014, Cohen avoided jail time when Justice Roland Cole accepted a plea agreement in which Cohen pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and violation of conditions of release. In exchange, Cole approved Cohen a deferred disposition, meaning that if Cohen complied with a number of conditions for one year, the domestic violence charge would be dismissed.
But less than 24 hours later, Cohen was arrested again and charged with violating bail conditions after allegedly assaulting the same person at a Jefferson camp. The allegation prompted Androscoggin County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Matulis, who was prosecuting the case, to file a motion to terminate the plea agreement and deferred disposition, and revoke Cohen’s probation.
Justice Cole released Cohen on bail and imposed two new bail conditions: that Cohen surrender his passport to the Lincoln County sheriff and that he have no contact with the victim. According to court documents, Cohen had traveled outside the country twice to the victim’s new home in Costa Rica, in violation of bail conditions, to see the victim and that they had numerous contacts over Facebook through alias accounts.
Eventually, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating a condition of release and disorderly conduct with the assault charge being dismissed.