A high-profile New Haven attorney has been barred from practicing law for two weeks in Connecticut for “carelessly” sharing confidential medical records of Sandy Hook families with other attorneys during the 2022 Alex Jones defamation awards trials.
Norm Pattis, who originally faced a six-month suspension of his Connecticut law license for improperly disclosing the highly sensitive records, appealed that penalty and had his disciplinary case retried before a different judge, who ruled on Wednesday.
“Simply put, given his experience, there is no acceptable excuse for his misconduct. Pattis is a well-known attorney who handles high-profile cases on a regular basis,” wrote state Superior Court Judge Robin Wilson in a 32-page decision. “He was required to appreciate the consequences of his actions when he made the decision to release the (Sandy Hook records).”
Pattis on Thursday told Hearst Connecticut Media Group, “I have to live with the consequences.”
“I’m relieved,” said Pattis, who had a clean 30-year record and said he has not yet decided whether to appeal. “I still think the suspension is a bit much.”
The judge disagreed.
The Sandy Hook families' “[highly] sensitive and [confidential] information, which should have been safeguarded and which was also protected by the court order, was carelessly passed around from one unauthorized person to another, without regard for the protective order, and with no effort [by Pattis] to safeguard the ... (families’) sensitive, confidential documents,” Wilson wrote in her decision. “(T)he (families) were seeking redress against (Jones) for personal attacks in a hotly contested case. Given the highly litigious nature of this case, Pattis should have been on heightened alert.”
The judge was referring to 2022, when Alex Jones faced back-to-back defamation awards trials in Texas and Connecticut, and Pattis, who represented Jones in Connecticut, improperly shared the mental health records of Sandy Hook families from the Connecticut case that were protected under a court order with Jones' attorneys in Texas. Pattis was defending Jones in Connecticut after a group of families successfully sued him for defamation. Jones called the 2012 slaying of 26 first graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax” and “completely fake with actors.”
"Pattis’ mental state at the time of the transfer of documents … has been determined to be negligent,” the judge wrote in her decision Wednesday. “There is clear and convincing evidence that Pattis was aware of his obligations under the clear and unambiguous terms of the protective order issued by the court.”
The judge noted in her decision that she took into account “mitigating factors” in Pattis’ defense, including “no prior public disciplinary record, and … an absence of a dishonest or selfish motive."
“The court attributes some minimal credit for (Pattis’) initial disclosure to (Sandy Hook families’ lawyers), however, that disclosure fell far short," the judge writes. "The court also considers Pattis’ remorsefulness. When he testified before this court, he acknowledged he violated code provisions and would have “looked before he leapt.”
What happens next for Pattis is up to him, the judge said.
"(The) two-week suspension shall be served consecutively within six months from the date of this order," the judge wrote. "Attorney Pattis is directed to advise the court of which two weeks within the six-month period the suspension will be served."
Pattis was working in a Connecticut courtroom as recently as Tuesday, when he attended the sentencing hearing for convicted serial sex offender Daniel Checovetes, in state Superior Court in Torrington. Checovetes pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement. After the hearing, Pattis said he was hired to replace defense counsel Patrick Tomasiewicz to review the agreement and said he found it to be fair.
Pattis, standing beside his client, did not address the court as Checovetes was sentenced to in an 8½-year prison term.