PORTLAND – A Rumford lawyer who is spearheading a referendum to bring a casino to Oxford County was the subject of a public disciplinary hearing Monday by a panel looking into multiple allegations of misconduct.

Complaints filed against Seth Carey by other lawyers and a judge allege that he approached clients of other lawyers to speak with them about their cases, and that he has conducted himself in a manner unworthy of an attorney when participating in municipal meetings in Rumford.

The disciplinary hearing was conducted before a grievance commission appointed by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. The hearing was not expected to end Monday, but would likely reconvene later this week. The panel, which disciplines about 15 Maine lawyers a year, typically issues decisions two to three weeks after a hearing. Monday’s hearing was the second phase of the grievance procedure, which occurs only after the Bar Counsel has found sufficient grounds for discipline.

According to the disciplinary petition, Carey faces five counts of violating the bar’s Code of Professional Responsibility, with findings of probable misconduct on each count and a recommendation that he be disciplined on all counts.

He was unavailable for comment, but has previously requested that all requests for information be routed through Pat LaMarche, spokeswoman for MaineCasinosNow.com.

LaMarche said Monday that Carey’s appearance before the disciplinary board doesn’t affect Carey’s casino project “at all.”

“Nothing alleged is criminal. It’s nothing like that. In the meantime, damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead,” she said.

Rumford Attorney Peter Kaynor filed a grievance against Carey in February 2007, alleging that, when Carey was employed as a legal assistant in the Carey law firm, Carey “twice attempted to have unauthorized contact with a client of Kaynor’s firm.” Kaynor’s grievance also alleges Carey behaved unprofessionally toward fellow attorneys and community members, including poor behavior at municipal meetings.

Kaynor also alleges that Carey made written and verbal accusations against Kaynor’s law partner, Jennifer Kreckel, that were untrue and he should have refrained from making. At the time, Kreckel had served as Rumford’s attorney for years. Selectmen replaced her months later, contracting Carey’s father, Tom Carey, for his services instead.

In answering Kaynor’s complaint before the the Board of Overseers of the Bar, Seth Carey described himself as active in local issues and politics, but agreed that “his private comments made to a former employee about the professional services rendered to the town by its then solicitor, Jennifer Kreckel, were comments he should have refrained from making.”

Kreckel filed her own complaint in June, alleging Carey provided misinformation and false testimony to the Judiciary Committee while making remarks concerning a report of the Right to Know Advisory Committee. In his remarks, although never referring to Kreckel directly, Carey complained that the town solicitor “declined to provide him with information due to attorney/client privilege” as he sought access to public information.

Those remarks were later repeated on the online River Valley Reporter.

Kaynor filed a second grievance against Carey last August, alleging Carey talked with one of Kaynor’s clients in violation of Bar Association rules of conduct. Specifically, Carey is accused of approaching one of Kaynor’s clients and discussing a “child support case in which Carey represented a party adverse” to the client, according to the disciplinary petition.

Mr. Kaynor wrote a letter of concern to Carey, asking him to self-report his actions to the Bar, which Carey subsequently did. In defending his communication with Kaynor’s client, Carey explained that he had attended high school with Kaynor’s client and their conversation was merely one of “catching up.”

Also last August, Rumford Attorney David Austin filed a complaint alleging Carey had wrongfully communicated with one of Austin’s divorce clients. In that instance, Carey is accused of advising his own client – involved in the same divorce – to violate a court order not to communicate with his spouse, and to approach her directly to negotiate a detail of the divorce. In October, Judge John D. McElwee, filed a complaint echoing Austin’s assertions of misconduct against Carey regarding improper communications in that divorce matter.

The Board of Overseers’ disciplinary petition concludes that Carey “engaged in violations of at least” nine Maine Bar Rules in the five counts of the complaint, and has “conducted himself in a manner unworthy of an attorney,” recommending that the Grievance Commission mete “appropriate disciplinary action as is provided for under the Maine Bar Rules.”

Carey could be disciplined with a written public reprimand or more, up to and including suspension of his license or disbarment.

LaMarche said it won’t come to that. “This appears to be a squabble among attorneys and the two are unrelated. It’s not even possible that he could be disbarred, the bottom line is one attorney alleges something about another attorney and what’s been alleged is not a disbarable problem. It’s a he-said, she-said problem. This is just a couple of attorneys who made each other mad, which happens.”

“The bottom line is we are moving forward on this project,” she said.

Carey’s group, Evergreen Mountain Enterprises, wants to operate a casino in western Maine. Mainers will vote on his proposal in November.

Carey, who attended law school at the University of Vermont and graduated in 2001, was admitted to the Maine Bar on May 24, 2006. He is currently practicing at his family’s firm, Carey & Associates, in Rumford.