The New York City Bar Association on Wednesday condemned the U.S. Department of Justice for indicting Carl Charles, an attorney with Lambda Law Firm, on a felony charge.
in Felony indictment; The Justice Department has accused Charles, an Atlanta-based transgender lawyer, of making “false statements” during a judicial investigation.
The investigation was launched in 2022 by three Alabama district court judges who believed Charles, along with other attorneys, had engaged in “judge shopping” to obtain a more favorable outcome in a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. During the investigation, U.S. District Judge Lyles Burke found that Charles was “deliberately dishonest” when he initially refused to call another judge into his courtroom. The judge had been asked to be assigned a related case in a case challenging Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care.
In his order, Judge Burke publicly reprimanded Mr. Charles and imposed a $5,000 fine, but also noted that Mr. Charles had committed “no perjury” and instead “referred the matter to the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama to investigate whether Mr. Charles committed any wrongdoing.”[d] Involved in any criminal activity. ”
Charles initially said he did not call the judge’s office, but later apologized and said he did, according to a report by the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. The Justice Department’s indictment does not indicate that Charles corrected the record within minutes of his initial statement. The indictment also does not mention that Charles was not informed in advance that the related incident designations and calls would be the subject of an investigation, nor that Charles said he was “nervous” and tried to be “as candid as possible.”
It is also important to note that neither the court nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office nor the three-judge panel found the summons to be inappropriate.
Lambda Legal, which has represented LGBTQ equality and people living with HIV for more than 50 years, takes issue with the indictment’s characterization of events, saying it “ignores the fact that the court found the routine phone calls at issue to be entirely legal and appropriate.”
The New York City Bar Association said the initial investigation was “highly unusual” and the charges targeting Charles were “even more problematic,” highlighting similarities between the case and the mistreatment of civil rights lawyers during the civil rights movement.
“Judge Burke found that Mr. Charles committed misconduct and imposed severe sanctions. While the City Court takes no position on the validity of this finding or the sanction, subject to Mr. Charles’ right to appeal, the matter should have ended there,” the New York City Bar Association said in a statement. “False statements made by attorneys in court must be taken seriously, but the prosecution of Mr. Charles is a significant departure from normal practice, especially since Mr. Charles corrected his statements before they materially affected the investigation.”
The New York City Bar Association also emphasized that Charles is transgender and argued that the charges may be politically motivated to minimize the fight for transgender rights in the United States. “We are concerned that this irregular prosecution appears intended to chill the efforts of advocates to litigate in support of transgender rights and other civil rights claims.”
They go on to explain that the current political climate may be a contributing factor, but call on the executive branch and the Department of Justice to abide by the rule of law and the Constitution. “It comes as the Trump administration’s systematic targeting of the rights of transgender people accelerates through inflammatory actions, rhetoric, and policies.”
“The City Court urges the executive branch to uphold the rule of law, to cease distorting the mission and functions of the Department of Justice by targeting individuals and groups politically abhorred by the administration, and to refrain from attempts to criminalize attorneys who work on behalf of transgender and other marginalized communities.”
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
