Disbarred JAG convicted at trial - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Disbarred JAG convicted at trial

A former senior judge advocate general duped the Air Force into letting him practice for more than 20 years with no law license, a military court decided Wednesday.

A jury of officers convicted Col. Michael D. Murphy of three counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, one count of failing to obey a lawful order and three counts of larceny related to travel expenses for teaching engagements outside the service.

All the charges carry prison time — 41 years maximum — but Murphy won’t spend a day behind bars and gets to leave the Air Force without penalty because a judge previously ruled his defense was compromised by the classified nature of some of his work.

Murphy went on trial Monday at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., where he once headed the Air Force Legal Operations Agency. The 10-member jury returned its verdicts late Wednesday.

Much of the trial centered on the larceny charges. Murphy accepted teaching assignments from the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Gulf Coast region, Louisiana State University and at a private Canadian law firm. On those trips, Murphy taught ethics to trial lawyers.

The organizations paid Murphy’s hotel and travel expenses, but Murphy also billed the Air Force for the trips and recouped extra cash, said Col. Polly Kenny for the prosecution.

Defense attorneys Maj. Gwendolyn Beitz and Maj. Amy Jordan countered that Murphy filed the expense paperwork by mistake and was not attempting to steal from the Air Force.

Several general officers took to the witness stand — some testifying for the prosecution, others for the defense. They mostly spoke of Murphy’s character, which they described as sound. A few, however, remarked they wouldn’t have confided in the one-star select or discussed classified information if they had known he was disbarred.

The ruling that keeps Murphy from going to prison relates to his work in the White House Military Office from 2001 to 2005. Because of the secrecy of the position, the White House refused to release Murphy’s service record.

In September, Army Col. Stephen Henley ruled that without the record the defense would be unable to demonstrate Murphy’s good conduct and performance during the sentencing phase of the trial, which he called “a substantial right of a military accused.” Based on that reasoning, the judge declared Murphy could receive no punishment.

The Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, headed by Chief Judge Air Force Col. James Wise, upheld Henley’s decision in December.

The Air Force began investigating Murphy in November 2006 after a check of Texas legal records showed he had been disbarred in the early 1980s. Further investigation showed Murphy had been barred from practicing in Louisiana and U.S. District Court.

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