I don’t use this column to pick sides among qualified candidates contending for elective office, but I consider it a public service to comment on a candidate who’s unqualified for office.

Seth Carey, one of two Republican primary contenders who will face incumbent Andrew Robinson in the November 2018 race for district attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford Counties, has a record that shows he’s not fit to be seeking, let alone serving in, this prosecutorial post.

I don’t have a personal bone to pick with Carey. Though I’m a Maine lawyer, I’ve never come up against him in a legal case or matter. Indeed, I’ve only met him once, when he was sworn in as a new member of the bar in 2006. Nor do my reasons for criticizing him have anything to do with politics. They’re strictly professional, and most are documented on the website of the Maine Board of Bar Overseers (the state’s oversight agency for licensed attorneys).

Carey has been suspended from the practice of law on three occasions in less than a decade on various grounds, including lack of competency, improper communication with an adverse party, conduct unworthy of an attorney, unlawful conduct, and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Most recently, a Superior Court justice issued an interim suspension order, effective April 30 pending further hearing, and appointed a receiver to take charge of his practice.

It’s unclear to me, given his current suspension, whether Carey should even be allowed to continue running for district attorney, a post for which there are only two statutory requirements — that the candidate be a lawyer admitted to the general practice of law in Maine and that he reside in the prosecutorial district for which he seeks office. Carey was admitted to general practice in Maine, but, as long as his license remains under suspension, he can’t, in fact, practice here.

Even in the unlikely event Carey’s license is restored before the June 12, primary, I don’t see how he can possibly inspire public confidence.

Serving as a prosecutor is a high-wire act, requiring the right mix of integrity, competence, compassion, decisiveness, tact, and, most of all, fairness. It’s impossible to satisfy everyone in an adversarial system, but public confidence that cases are being handled professionally and even-handedly goes a long way towards preserving trust in the system and respect for the rule of law.

Like many states, Maine elects, rather than appoints, its public prosecutors, who can run under party-affiliated labels.

Political candidates, starting with those who vie for the presidency, don’t necessarily get elected because they possess any of the traits listed above. In fact, our political system is increasingly rewarding candidates who are foul-mouthed, mean-spirited, ignorant, narrow-minded, dishonest and just plain crazy. Indeed, it almost makes sense for government offices which accept their nominating petitions to post signs which read, “No skills experience, character or judgment required for elective office.”

Somehow we muddle through with poor executive and legislative elected leaders. Yet I don’t think the same is possible for the justice system, which requires a high degree of professionalism to function at all. And Carey’s record shows he’s no poster child for that.

Carey’s April 30th interim suspension was based on evidence introduced against him at a Protection from Abuse hearing held March 30 in Rumford District Court. The suspension order states in part, “the testimony at the PA hearing … supports a finding that Attorney Carey subjected the complainant – a person whom he had formerly represented – to conduct that would constitute unlawful sexual contact … . The testimony also supports … that on another occasion Attorney Carey grabbed the complainant’s head and thrust it toward his crotch while demanding oral sex. The latter conduct would at a minimum constitute an assault … .”

Despite negative publicity resulting from the protective order, Carey refused to withdraw from the election and has loudly proclaimed himself the innocent victim. In a press conference he staged on the steps of the Androscoggin County courthouse in early April, he said that women like the one who obtained the order should be behind bars for lying and vowed to use the power of the d.a.’s office to pursue people who file false claims.

In November 2016, Carey entered into a consent order suspending him for two years, but staying the suspension and placing him on probationary status, subject to his successful completion of 28 remedial conditions. The complaints leading to this order included observations of professional incompetence and failure to exercise diligence by four judges and a physician acting as a Worker’s Compensation independent medical examiner as well as questions raised by another attorney about Carey’s mishandling of an IOLTA (client trust fund) account.

In two proceedings in 2009, Carey was suspended respectively for periods of six months and 60 days (running concurrently) for incompetence (based on observations by two judges), initiating improper direct contact with opposing parties (by bypassing their attorneys), and unleashing emotional angry outbursts at, and refusing to leave the home of, a criminal justice professor, a woman with whom he had a brief friendship.

As recently as last Monday, Auburn police issued Carey a no-trespassing notice on behalf of Cumberland Farms on Center Street after he apparently precipitated what one bystander described as A “nasty” confrontation with the store’s employees about his right to place his election signs on the establishment’s private property. As yet no disciplinary proceeding has arisen from that episode.

Throughout all these occurrences there have been recurring themes – lack of professional competence, a cavalier attitude towards ethical boundaries, a tendency to angry outbursts, an eagerness to accuse his accusers of fabricating evidence and conspiring against him, and a readiness to brand judges who issue decisions unfavorable to him of being biased.

These same traits catapulted Donald Trump into the presidency, and that story is unlikely to end well. Let’s hope they don’t carry Seth Carey into the district attorney’s post.

Elliott Epstein is a trial lawyer with Andrucki & King in Lewiston. His Rearview Mirror column, which has appeared in the Sun Journal for 10 years, analyzes current events in an historical context. He is also the author of “Lucifer’s Child,” a book about the notorious 1984 child murder of Angela Palmer. He may be contacted at [email protected]

Elliott Epstein