FARGO, N.D.—The chief federal judge in North Dakota has ordered the investigation of a defense attorney who authorities say lied about being a licensed lawyer before he was caught by a client accused of child pornography.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland filed an order Tuesday suspending Howard Kieffer from handling cases in North Dakota and asking the U.S. attorney’s office and the disciplinary board of the state Supreme Court to look into the matter.
Hovland said when Kieffer applied for a license in North Dakota, he claimed to have a juris doctor degree from Antioch Law School in Washington, D.C., and said he had been admitted to practice law in a federal court district in California.
“Kieffer has now admitted to the court that neither of those statements are true,” Hovland wrote in his order. “Therefore, the petition Kieffer submitted for admission to the federal bar in North Dakota contained admittedly false information.”
Voice messages left Tuesday with Kieffer’s office in Santa Ana, Calif., were not returned.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter said he could not comment specifically on Kieffer’s case, other than to say, “It’s weird.”
Hovland found out about Kieffer after he got a letter from Joel Wells, a man accused in Minnesota on two felony counts of child pornography. Wells told Hovland he checked into Kieffer’s background and found out he had never been a licensed attorney, even though he claimed to be licensed in California in order to be admitted into the North Dakota bar on March 16, 2007.
“Wells contends he retained Kieffer as an attorney, paid him $37,000, and that Kieffer has repeatedly ignored his communications and been less than honest in his dealings with Wells,” Hovland wrote in June 5 court documents.
The Denver Post reported earlier that court records show Kieffer has represented at least 16 clients in 10 federal courts throughout the country.
The newspaper said the U.S. attorney for Utah has been assigned to investigate Kieffer. Federal prosecutors in Colorado declined to investigate Kieffer because they saw him in U.S. District Court in Denver represent a woman convicted of trying to hire a hit man on the Internet to kill her son’s father.
Wells’ primary lawyer, Daniel Gerdts, said in an interview that Wells wanted a team of lawyers and added Kieffer because the defense attorney claimed to be an expert on sentencing, prison issues and the federal child pornography law.
“He was a smooth talker who was convincing to his client,” Gerdts said. “He sure did not do a very good job in court.”
Another one of Wells’ former lawyers, Rick Mattox of Prior Lake, Minn., vouched for Kieffer on his Minnesota application, on which Kieffer claimed he was in good standing in North Dakota. Mattox was not available for comment Tuesday.
Gerdts said he did not expect the investigation of Kieffer to affect Well’s case, which is still several months away from trial.
However, Gerdts said the Minnesota judge in that case, Judge Donovan Frank, “did mention on the record that he thought it was somewhat of an embarrassment to the criminal justice system that it was my client, an accused defendant, who actually outed Mr. Kieffer.”
