The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has upheld the reprimand of a lawyer who supposedly showed a “disgusting” meme to detainees in the Chelsea courthouse lockup.
According to the SJC’s opinion,
The [board of bar overseers’] hearing committee found that the image, or meme, that the [lawyer[ showed to the detainee depicted a scantily clad blond woman, wearing a bustier, thong underwear, and an off-the-shoulder fur jacket, descending a flight of stairs.4 Its caption stated, “Immigrants are bad,” and below the picture are the words, “Unless they have nice legs, screw you for money, and do naked photo shoots with other women.” The [lawyer] showed this image to two of the detainees in the lockup area.
A female probation officer saw the image and told the lawyer it was “disgusting and inappropriate.”
After she left the lockup area, the lawyer allegedly “covered his mouth with his hand and made a face, feigning shame or embarrassment” and then “made a gesture with his left hand mimicking a form of male masturbation.”
The full text of the opinion is attached below.