Attorney gets off lightly for sleeping with drug dealing client

An attorney who slept with a client facing years behind bars for drug charges got off (pun intended) easy for her relationship with a drug dealer. Thirty-one year old Anna Scmaltz was given a public reprimand for the sexual relationship with Alfred Julian, who she represented as a public defendant in two 2006 drug cases.

Julian ratted his "lover" out because he was offered a plea deal which would have sent him to prison for 2 years. Julian, against Schmalz' advice, refused to take the deal, and was sentenced to 5 years, later reduced to 3 years on appeal. He then told officials he had a sexual relationship with his client.

Investigators asked Schmalz about Julian's assertions and she denied them, saying she only had a friendship with him.

Those denials continued - until investigators told her they had more than 50 hours of recorded telephone conversation between Schmalz and Julian when he was behind bars.

According to the Ohio Supreme Court statement, "The calls had been monitored by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department with the knowledge of the participants...Among the approximately 110 half-hour recorded conversations between (Schmalz) and her client were explicit descriptions of sexual acts and professions of love between the two. In at least three calls, (Schmalz) requested and/or engaged in telephone sexual activity with her client."

The decision was reached to reprimant and not issue more severe sanctions because in that drug case in which Julian was sentenced to 5 years, Schmalz' defense enabled the jury to acquit Julian of two other charges. Julian was found not guilty of all charges against him in the second case.