The Oregon Supreme Court has imposed a five-year suspension — the maximum penalty possible, short of disbarment — on a Portland-based lawyer who fired six bullets at a Beaverton law office in 2017, narrowly missing the head of an employee.
The Oregon State Bar charged Erik Graeff, a Vancouver resident, with violating a rule of professional conduct, along with two charges for failing to communicate with his clients.
A disciplinary board trial panel recommended suspending Graeff for three years for the shooting incident, but it determined that the Oregon State Bar, which sought to disbar him, had failed to meet its burden to prove the other two charges. Graeff, who represented himself in the trial, sought a one-year suspension.
Both the Oregon State Bar and Graeff petitioned the Oregon Supreme Court to review the panel’s decision.
In their ruling, the court weighed multiple mitigating factors, including Graeff’s personal and emotional problems. An Iraq war veteran, Graeff suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his deployment, and he started drinking heavily after his father’s death in 2015. He entered a Veterans Administration treatment program but was unsuccessful at achieving sobriety.
“We have no doubt that [Graeff’s] judgment was impaired by his mental disability and chemical dependency,” the court said in its ruling. “However … those conditions cannot excuse [Graeff’s] intentional acts.”
His suspension began Wednesday.
Graeff’s legal troubles began in December 2017, when he got into a dispute with a colleague and professional mentor, Beaverton lawyer Terrance Hogan. That year, Hogan hired Graeff to file a case in Washington, where he was admitted to practice law. The two later disagreed on the scope of Graeff’s duties and began exchanging heated messages with each other in February 2018.
According to an affidavit, Hogan left Graeff a voicemail saying he didn’t approve of his work on the Washington case. Graeff responded with an email belittling Hogan’s message and attached an image of a cat playing a violin.
Hogan replied to Graeff saying he would have to explain his conduct to the state bars in Oregon and Washington. Graeff wrote back saying that the idea “sounds good,” that he’d be waiting, and that he’s tougher than Hogan and both state bars, the affidavit said.
“You know where I am tough guy,” Hogan wrote back, according to the affidavit.
Graeff, who had been drinking beers all day, replied to Hogan “If the traffic wasn’t such [expletive], I’d be there today.”
Graeff then got into his car in Northeast Portland and drove through rush hour traffic to the Scott S. Kang P.C. law office in Beaverton, where Hogan worked. He arrived, pulled out a pistol and fired six times at the building from the road. Three bullets hit the brick siding, one hit a metal exterior door and two went through one of the law firm’s office windows.
One of these bullets narrowly missed hitting the head of a law firm manager who was inside the office. An investigator reconstructed the trajectory of the bullets and determined that one bullet passed 7 inches to the left of the manager’s head, hitting the back of a computer.
Graeff immediately drove back home after the shooting. The next day, he sent Hogan an email apologizing for losing his temper, claimed he did the best he could on the Washington case and blamed Hogan for any problems with the case.
“With that off my chest merry Christmas buddy,” Graeff ended the email according to the affidavit. “Don’t suck too many reindeer [expletive] over the holiday.”
Graeff was arrested Feb. 28 and booked in Washington County Jail on accusations of unlawful use of a weapon and reckless endangerment. Search warrants by Beaverton and Vancouver police were served at both his workplace in Portland and home in Vancouver, where investigators seized two guns and ammunition.
Graeff negotiated an agreement in which he pleaded guilty in October 2018 to one count of use of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced in January 2019 to 18 months in prison, of which he served 10.
-- Catalina Gaitán; @catalinagaitan_
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Portland-based attorney who shot at Beaverton colleague’s office receives 5-year law suspension - OregonLive
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