Ms. Pitcher is eligible to appeal the Bar decision to the Oregon Supreme Court. They can sustain the Bar recommendation, increase the sanction, or decrease it.
The Bar originally recommended a 90-day suspension, but the Bar adjudicator, after review of aggravating and minimizing evidence, concluded that Ms. Pitcher lied under oath at the Bar hearings, and therefore added 30 days to the penalty for a total of 120 days.
I have received comments expressing surprise that the penalty assessed by a Bar adjudicator who concluded that Ms. Pitcher lied to him under oath merited only an additional 30-days of suspension. Isn't lying under oath perjury? Isn't that a prosecutable crime? Doesn't lying in a forum about attorney ethics seem especially misplaced and wrong? I have to wonder: Have attorneys become so inured to dishonesty that a Bar official considers the suitable penalty for lying under oath is to add 30 days of enforced vacation?
Lawyers take care of their own.
But to clarify my previous post: Maryanne Pitcher's suspension is pending, is not in effect, and she has the right to appeal the penalty, and the Supreme Court may decide that no penalty or sanction is necessary.
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