A justice at Maine’s top court ordered a Rumford lawyer to stop practicing law in Maine for six months and a day.

Maine Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Andrew Mead ordered Seth Carey suspended beginning March 30.

Following his suspension, Carey must petition for reinstatement, Mead wrote in court papers. As a condition for reinstatement, Carey must “demonstrate that he has undertaken further education in trial advocacy and professional ethics” through formal instruction, Mead wrote.

Carey also “must demonstrate that he has obtained the services of an established trial attorney (not a relative or member of his father’s law firm) with a demonstrated expertise in trial and criminal defense advocacy to monitor and mentor him” for a year after he’s been reinstated, Mead wrote.

In addition, Mead said Carey must reimburse the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar for investigation and hearing expenses related to his case.

Carey, who spearheaded a failed referendum that would have paved the way for a casino in Oxford County, practices out of his father’s Rumford law office.

The Maine Board prosecuted four complaints lodged against Carey, three of them forwarded by the Board’s Grievance Commission. Mead presided last fall over the hearings.

Carey defended his actions against the complaints that included allegations of unethical behavior and incompetence brought by Maine attorneys and judges.

Mead addressed each complaint and cited Carey’s half-dozen violations of Maine Bar rules.

The allegations largely stemmed from Carey’s actions involving another Rumford lawyer, David Austin, and two Maine District Court judges, John McElwee and Valerie Stanfill. She questioned Carey’s competence to handle criminal matters in her courtroom.

An additional complaint, filed in October, was not addressed in Mead’s recent order.

In that complaint, a lawyer and professor who researches the professional development of lawyers recounted Carey’s rants against the Board of Overseers of the Bar’s prosecutor. Anne Corbin wrote in her complaint that Carey physically abused her German shepherd puppy, who was being trained as a therapy dog. He also refused to leave her home.

“While I was not afraid for my well-being, I was very uncomfortable and extremely wary of his ‘unhinged’ demeanor,” she wrote in her complaint.

Bar counsel J. Scott Davis declined to comment on the judge’s order. Carey could not be reached for comment.