The Superior Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Lewis, holding that a trial court has the power to disqualify an attorney from representing a criminal defendant but only in the most extreme circumstances. The Superior Court determined that this was not such a case as the Commonwealth and court failed to show that the alleged misconduct of the attorney could not be remedied or that the Commonwealth could not receive a fair trial.

Therefore, the trial court violated the defendant’s constitutional right to counsel by removing the defendant’s chosen attorney. The Superior Court vacated the defendant’s subsequent conviction which the Commonwealth obtained while he was represented by a different attorney and remanded for a new trial.

The Facts of Commonwealth v. Lewis

One evening in 2018, the defendant barricaded himself in his residence. An Emergency Response Team ("ERT") was summoned to the scene and communicated with the defendant to get him to surrender. Shortly after midnight, the defendant began shooting out of his residence. Over the next six hours, the defendant fired at least 30 shots, including several that struck an armored vehicle operated by ERT. Just after 7 a.m., the defendant left his residence and surrendered to ERT members.

The Commonwealth subsequently charged the defendant with 12 counts of attempted homicide, 24 counts of aggravated assault, 21 counts of recklessly endangering another person, two counts of possessing an instrument of crime, and one count of institutional vandalism. The defendant was appointed a public defender but quickly became dissatisfied with them. In 2019, the defendant retained private counsel to represent him. Just before the trial in 2020, the defendant’s attorney allegedly supplied body camera footage from an ERT member to a local newsgroup that aired the footage. The attorney also gave an interview commenting negatively on the lead officer’s professionalism.

The Motion to Disqualify

The Commonwealth filed pre-trial motions with various requests. The motions included a request to disqualify the defendant’s attorney for supposedly unethical actions that violated the Rules of Professional Conduct. The trial court held a hearing to determine if it should disqualify the lawyer. The trial court concluded that the attorney’s conduct placed the fairness and integrity of the defendant's trial in jeopardy. The court claimed that the unethical behavior of the attorney was an attempt to taint the jury pool by putting out irrelevant, inadmissible information that a jury would never see. The judge further opined that the attorney’s actions must have been an attempt to force the Commonwealth into making a better plea offer. The trial court found that the conduct was so outrageous that a fair trial could not take place with the defendant being represented by the current attorney. The court therefore removed the attorney from the case over defense objection. The defendant retained new counsel and proceeded with a jury trial. 

In 2021, a jury convicted the defendant of two counts of attempted homicide, 13 counts of aggravated assault, seven counts of recklessly endangering another person, two counts of possessing an instrument of crime, two counts of criminal mischief, one count of terroristic threats, and one count of institutional vandalism. In early 2022, the trial court sentenced him to 27.5 to 57 years of incarceration.

The Superior Court Appeal 

The defendant filed an appeal raising only one issue: he challenged the disqualification of his original private counsel. The Commonwealth argued that the standard of review is an abuse of discretion standard. An abuse of discretion standard is a difficult standard to meet that gives great deference to the trial court. Only when the law is misapplied or the result is unreasonable can a defendant win with this level of review. The Superior Court determined their review to be plenary, which means they can review the question of law without giving deference to the trial court and make their own conclusion.

The Superior Court began its analysis by reiterating that while the appeal necessarily focuses on the defense attorney’s actions, it is the defendant’s constitutional right to counsel that is at stake. It is unquestioned that a criminal defendant has an absolute right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Furthermore, a defendant has a constitutional right to secure counsel of his choice. If the trial court violates the defendant's right to proceed with an attorney of his choosing, he is entitled to a new trial because prejudice is presumed.

At the same time, the trial courts have the power to disqualify a defendant’s attorney. A court may do so only when it is absolutely essential. In determining when such extreme action may be necessary, the courts have used a two-step approach: a court must find that (1) there is no other remedy available for the attorney’s violations, and (2) there is no other way to ensure the Commonwealth's right to a fair trial.

Here, the Superior Court disagreed with the trial court on both counts. First, the Superior Court examined the defense attorney’s conduct. It concluded that the record supported the trial court's factual findings, and the defendant did not challenge those findings. The attorney arguably violated the Pennsylvania Rule of Professional Conduct (“Pa.R.P.C.”) rule 3.6 by making public statements that had a substantial likelihood of causing prejudice to the proceeding. However, a trial court cannot disqualify an attorney solely for a rule violation, and it also may not do so merely to punish the attorney for the violation.

The Superior Court found two errors with the trials court’s ruling. First, the court found that the trial court’s focus on the defense attorney’s past behavior indicated that the disqualification was punitive. Second, the court noted that the trial court focused on the outrageousness of the attorney’s conduct, not on whether it would continue and, in a way, prejudice the Commonwealth at trial. The Superior Court cited testimony showing that there were three pre-trial motions before the one to disqualify the attorney. In those three motions, there was a mutual agreement between the Commonwealth and the defense attorney to stop making public statements and that the body camera footage or officer disciplinary history was irrelevant to trial unless the Commonwealth brought it up themselves. Therefore, the Superior Court concluded there was a remedy to the attorney’s conduct and that the attorney had agreed not to violate any other rules.

Finally, the Superior Court looked at whether or not the prior conduct was enough to taint the jury pool and deny the Commonwealth a fair trial. The court concluded that two local media broadcasts were not pervasive enough to justify a presumption that the jury could not fulfill its duties fairly. The Superior Court also cited testimony from jury selection to emphasize the point. Jury selection showed that during the entire jury voir dire, only one potential juror had previous knowledge of the events, and that knowledge was vague at best.

Therefore, the Commonwealth was able to receive a fair trial, and the violation of the attorney’s actions was able to be remedied. The Superior Court vacated the defendant’s judgment of sentence and remanded for a new trial. This is an important case as it shows that courts should not be quick to interfere with the defendant’s decision of counsel and may do so only when absolutely necessary.

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