In re Fabrizio
Date Filed2022-12-08
Docket21-BG-831
Cited0 times
StatusPublished
Full Opinion (html_with_citations)
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
Atlantic and Maryland Reporters. Users are requested to notify the Clerk of the
Court of any formal errors so that corrections may be made before the bound
volumes go to press.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS
No. 21-BG-831
IN RE STEVEN B. FABRIZIO, RESPONDENT.
A Member of the Bar
of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
(Bar Registration No. 436482)
On Report and Recommendation
of the Board on Professional Responsibility
(BDN 22-BD-056; DDN 2021-D152)
(Decided December 8, 2022)
Before BECKWITH and EASTERLY, Associate Judges, and WASHINGTON,
Senior Judge.
PER CURIAM: The Board on Professional Responsibility recommends that
respondent be disbarred after he pled guilty to felony third-degree sexual abuse
(force), D.C. Code § 22-3004(1), and blackmail,D.C. Code § 22-3252
. The Board
found that the felony of third-degree sexual abuse (force) was an offense involving
moral turpitude per se and, alternatively, that the undisputed facts underlying the
offenses here involved moral turpitude. Neither Respondent nor Disciplinary
Counsel has filed an exception to the Boardās Report and Recommendation.
Respondent filed his D.C. Bar R. XI § 14(g) affidavit on October 24, 2022.
2
Under D.C. Bar R. XI, § 9(h)(2), āif no exceptions are filed to the Boardās
report, the [c]ourt will enter an order imposing the discipline recommended by the
Board upon the expiration of the time permitted for filing exceptions.ā See also In
re Viehe, 762 A.2d 542, 543(D.C. 2000) (per curiam) (āWhen . . . there are no exceptions to the Boardās report and recommendation, our deferential standard of review becomes even more deferential.ā). Because no exceptions have been filed, we accept the Boardās recommendation that the undisputed facts of this case constitute an offense of moral turpitude. Therefore, we impose the required sanction and disbar respondent from the practice of law. See In re Colson,412 A.2d 1160, 1164-65
(D.C. 1979) (en banc);D.C. Code § 11-2503
. Furthermore, because we
find the underlying facts constitute an offense involving moral turpitude, we express
no opinion on the Boardās analysis of whether the offenses involve moral turpitude
per se. 1
Accordingly, it is
1
See, e.g., In re Moir, 258 A.3d 161, 162 (D.C. 2021) (āBecause no exceptions have been filed, we need not . . . reach the issue of whether this offense constitutes a crime of moral turpitude per se or as applied to respondentās actions, as both support the recommendation of disbarment.ā); In re Goldsborough,654 A.2d 1285, 1287
(D.C. 1995) (imposing recommended discipline while declining to resolve
āsome difficult questions raised in the Boardās [Report]ā where respondent took no
part in the proceedings).
3
ORDERED that respondent Steven B. Fabrizio is hereby disbarred from the
practice of law in this jurisdiction nunc pro tunc to October 24, 2022.