Fort Wayne Public Defender Given 100-Day Home Detention Sentence After March Guilty Plea On Drunk Driving And Gun Charges

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette has a story today about a Fort Wayne attorney and public defender , Mitchell Hicks, who pleaded guilty to drunk driving and carrying a handgun without a license after he had an encounter with a former client outside a Fort Wayne bar. According to the article, Hicks pleaded guilty to the charges in March. Yesterday, Allen Co. Superior Court Judge Fran Gull sentenced Hicks to 100 days of home detention after suspending 275 days from his one-year sentence. "According to Indiana State Court records, Hicks’ license to practice law is active and in good standing," the Journal-Gazette reports.

That's right. Hicks can't even leave his home to go to the office or appear in court on behalf of a client, but he is still free to practice law in the state of Indiana. This is his second drunk driving conviction. He pleaded guilty in another drunk driving case in 2004. Even more interesting is the fact that the Disciplinary Commission recently concluded a disciplinary action it filed against him and closed the file after Hicks had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of drunken driving and carrying a handgun without a license. On March 13, 2013, the Commission filed a show cause petition against Hicks asking why his license shouldn't be suspended for refusing to cooperate in the disciplinary process. One week later, the Commission filed a motion to withdraw its show cause petition. On March 28, 2013, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Brent Dickson ordered the disciplinary action dismissed. No other actions are pending against him according to the roll of attorneys.

The Journal-Gazette says Hicks entered an alcohol rehabilitation program following his arrest last year. At his sentencing hearing last week, Hicks admitted to consuming alcohol "sometime late last month." "A doctor who has been counseling Hicks referred to it in testimony as a 'lapse' but not a 'relapse,' mainly because Hicks did not fall into his old habits again," the Journal-Gazette reported. “There is a fear you’re on a self-destructive path…if it isn’t interrupted, you’re going to die,” Gull said.