In Re Debartolo

488 N.E.2d 947 (1986)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P graduated from the John Marshall Law School in June 1981, and he passed the bar examination given in July of that year. The committee informed P that it had decided to refuse to certify that he possessed the requisite character and fitness for the practice of law. P's sworn 'Questionnaire and Statement of Applicant' submitted to the Illinois bar contained inaccurate information regarding his high school education and omitted a number of his residences. The committee was disturbed that P had incurred some 200 to 400 parking tickets, as he had indicated on his application. Also, P twice had falsely represented himself to others as a police officer. The committee refused to certify him for admission to the bar. P claimed that the parking tickets either had been paid or contested successfully in court. At the hearing P discounted their significance: he believed that many of the tickets were unfairly given, as when he put money in the meter but received a ticket anyway, and he asserted too that the tickets provided an important source of revenue for the city and that the meters were patrolled zealously in the area where he normally parked. P gave inaccurate information concerning his high school education. P attended a different high school for a different period of time, from 1971 to 1975 than what was stated on his application. He offered no explanation for those discrepancies and attributed them to his haste and neglect in filling out the application. P also claimed he had resided at his parent's home for the preceding 10 years. He testified at the hearing, however, that he had lived at five different addresses in Chicago during the several years preceding his application, which apparently confirmed the committee's investigation of the matter. He occupied those places for only short periods, ranging from one day to eight months, and generally was not required to pay rent. P claimed that the application called only for a list of domiciles, which in his case remained his parents' address at all times. P used several of the other addresses in registering to vote and in applying for various official documents such as a driver's license, a firearm owner's identification card, a city of Chicago vehicle license, and a car registration. He also used an address other than his parent's in applying for a job with the Chicago police department. Chicago police officer Russell J. Luchtenburg, a college classmate of P, testified that one day at school sometime in 1977 he refused P's request to borrow his badge and gun. P told him that he had left his own badge and gun at home and wanted to borrow Luchtenburg's so that he could arrest some persons whom he had seen smoking marijuana. Joseph Burke, who had investigated the petitioner's application for employment with the Chicago police department, testified that P admitted to him that he had falsely represented himself as a police officer once while in a tavern with friends. At the time of the hearing P had no record of moving traffic violations or criminal convictions, nor had he been involved in any civil actions that would bring his general fitness into question. P was denied admission and appealed.