The trial of alleged drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was thrown into turmoil this week — and it had nothing to do with the defendant.
One of Guzman’s leading lawyers has been accused of exchanging sexual explicit messages with a former client, which could result in him being disbarred and unable to practice law.
“Hundreds of text messages the New York Post says it obtained allegedly show steamy exchanges between the attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, and a former client, restaurateur Sarma Melngailis,” Fox News reported Monday. “She made headlines herself after being convicted in 2017 of scamming investors in her eatery, as well employees, out of $1 million. She served just under four months in jail.”
According to the report, the messages were X-rated stuff — and could cause trouble in El Chapo’s trial.
“Do you want to belong to me?” One text message allegedly reads. “Will it be ok if some days I just use your body so that I can [expletive]?”
“You do look so pretty in that pic I would like to foul you,” another text, sent to Melngailis during her 2017 trial, read. “Is it bad that I’m thinking some disgusting thoughts about you?”
“Is it bad that Iʼm glad youʼre thinking them?” Melngailis responded.
The messages grew more and more racy… and that’s a serious ethical problem say experts.
“The idea that someone would have a sexual relationship with a client is absurd,” one New York City criminal-defense attorney told The New York Post. “I think there are some major ethical issues. It’s taking advantage of clients.”
The New York State Bar Association’s code of professional responsibility says a lawyer cannot “require or demand sexual relations with a client or third party incident to … any professional representation,” and they are forbidden from using “coercion, intimidation, or undue influence in entering into sexual relations with a client.”
That means Lichtman’s legal standing as a defense attorney could be in trouble — which would throw El Chapo’s trial into a loop.
— The Horn editorial team