PORTLAND - Rumford lawyer Seth Carey on Wednesday told a professional panel overseeing complaints filed against him that he regretted things he's said in the heat of the moment. He also admitted to lapses in judgment.

His actions were, at times, "brash, intemperate and excessive" he said, choking back tears and wiping his eyes as he read a statement.

"I am a young and sometimes naïve idealist," he said. "I was thinking with my heart and not with my head."

Carey appeared before the three-member Grievance Commission of the Board of Overseers of the Bar at Cumberland County Courthouse in response to complaints about his professional conduct filed by three Maine lawyers and a judge. He was admitted to the Maine Bar in 2006.

Carey was the final witness to be called on the third day of hearings. Both the bar counsel and the defense attorney are expected to submit closing arguments to the panel by May 27. Carey's lawyer, Stephen Chute, will ask for some of the complaints to be dismissed, he said Wednesday. Prosecutor Aria Eee will have a week to respond to Chute's motions.

Sporting a light gray suit and purple tie, Carey took the witness stand in the oak-paneled jury room on the third floor of the Portland courthouse.

He said he had overcome attention-deficit disorder and learning disabilities to get through school and earn a license to practice law, a feat some doubted he could achieve.

Addressing the formal complaints one by one, Carey was contrite, expressing remorse about his handling of legal and personal affairs.

At a meeting of Mexico selectmen, his behavior was inappropriate, said Carey, who works out of his father's Rumford law office.

"I was rude and spoke out of turn," he said. Listening to a recording of his outburst was embarrassing, he said. "I should not have acted that way."

He should not have posted comments on a Web site about Rumford's then-town attorney, one of those who brought a complaint against him, Carey said.

But he stopped short of admitting to ethics violations, such as advising a client to bypass his estranged wife's lawyer during a prolonged divorce settlement.

Rumford lawyer David Austin had testified at an earlier hearing that he had admonished Carey for helping his client present legal papers to Austin's client for her signature without Austin's knowledge.

Carey said Wednesday he was "100 percent sure" he had talked to Austin about the proposed agreement and gave him a copy while the two were at the Oxford County Courthouse on an unrelated matter.

Carey's father, Thomas Carey, also testified Wednesday, giving a similar account of his son's interaction with Austin and even remembered Austin waving the document as he spoke.

"On my mother's grave, I saw what I saw. I heard what I heard," Thomas Carey said.

The elder Carey said he bore responsibility, in part, for not providing greater guidance in legal matters to his less-experienced son. The father said he applauded his son's outspokenness on political issues and efforts to assist disenfranchised townspeople, but acknowledged he may have crossed the line in his zeal.

"I'm very proud of Seth for his courage to step forward on difficult issues, but I realize there are rules that have to complied with," Thomas Carey said. "I recognize that some of his actions probably justifiably caught the attention of some of his complainants."

Carey's father said his son has learned from his missteps, but took issue with the fact that the younger Carey's indiscretions were not dealt with in a less formal fashion.

If every violation of every rule were reported to the bar, Thomas Carey said, "things would be worse for the profession."

Since that time, he said he's confident his son is "on the right path."

For his part, Seth Carey said he planned to take some time off from practicing law and enroll in continuing legal education classes.

Under cross examination, he told the prosecutor that he believed the complaints against him should be dismissed.

The prosecutor quizzed him about his earlier denial that he had been arrested or summonsed by police since 2001. Acknowledging that he had recently been summonsed for assault, Carey explained the discrepancy as a misunderstanding of the prosecutor's earlier question. The assault charge since has been dismissed by the Maine Attorney General's Office.

David Abramson, chairman of the grievance panel, told Carey he and his fellow panelists appreciated Carey's statement. "It's certainly not easy for any attorney to go through this particular matter," Abramson said. "It's an honorable, but an accountable, profession. We police ourselves."

The panel, composed of two Maine lawyers and a law professor, could take various actions, ranging in seriousness from dismissal of all five counts to making a finding of possible cause for suspension or disbarment. That action would go before a single member of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court for a hearing.