In re Cater

On Report and Recommendation of the Board on Professional Responsibility (Bar Docket Nos. 337-99, 139-01, 372-01 & 428-01) Argued June 17, 2004 Before TERRY, REID and GLICKMAN, Associate Judges. Rozan E. Cater, an attorney who was admitted to the Bar of this Court in 1989, is the respondent in four consolidated disciplinary matters coming to us with a report and recommendation from the Board on Professional Responsibility.1 In the first matter, a closely divided Board would absolve respondent of ethical misconduct in connection with her former secretary's embezzlement of over $47,000 from the estates of two incapacitated adults for whom respondent was the court-appointed guardian and conservator. In the other three matters, the Board has found misconduct in respondent's repeated failures to cooperate with disciplinary investigations by Bar Counsel into ethical complaints against her. The Board accordingly recommends that respondent be suspended from practicing law for ninety days, with reinstatement conditioned on her compliance with Bar Counsel's investigative inquiries and on proof by respondent of her fitness to resume legal practice. Both Bar Counsel and respondent have objected to the Board's report.