As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes cases hit the headlines for a day only to disappear into oblivion. But thanks to some followup reporting, there’s one story that we can give an update on.

Readers may recall a post from May of this year about a state attorney, Maureen Duggan, who wrote an anonymous letter about the state’s Ethics Chief, allegedly purporting to be a parking lot attendant.  Above the Law also ran a post about it as well. 

So what’s happened to that attorney since then? Over the last week or so, two events related to the attorney have hit the headlines.

First, state officials indicated that they planned no disciplinary action against the employee.  According to the Hartford Courant:

An investigator concluded in an Aug. 7 report, released Wednesday, that use of the phony identity by Duggan — who was a State Ethics Commission staff lawyer in 2004, and is now an attorney at the state’s child-protection agency — was not reason to discipline her under state personnel rules.

Her conduct "may be construed to be wrong, improper or even deceitful," but doesn’t add up to "sufficient evidence" to discipline her, wrote personnel administrator Stephen Caliendo of the Department of Administrative Services.

But that doesn’t mean that the lawyer has escaped without punishment. In fact, her current job is dependent on her law license; that license is now in jeopardy after it was also announced that a state grievance panel filed a complaint against her that could lead to discipline or disbarment.  A hearing will likely be scheduled in November or December 2008, according to the Hartford Courant and the employee has retained Hope Seeley to represent her. 

And what’s happened to the underlying employment claim by former state ethics chief? Well, the state filed its reply brief in support of its summary judgment motion in June (download here).   Notably, when the state filed its reply brief, it attached some additional exhibits as well including the full deposition of Maureen Duggan (available here).  Thus, readers can get a full picture of her deposition and not just the portions excerpted before.   

A decision on the motion for summary judgment is expected later this year.