People v. Jonathan Mark Love. 16PDJ041. May 11, 2016. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ conditional admission of misconduct and disbarred Jonathan Mark Love (attorney registration number 20546), effective June 15, 2016.
Love was an assistant chief counsel for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He represented the government in the immigration removal proceeding of a certain Mexican citizen living in the United States, “I.L.” At a hearing in immigration court in Seattle in May 2009, I.L. indicated that he planned to apply for cancellation of removal. Love then altered a form that I.L. had previously executed, changing the signature date and making other material and fraudulent alterations. Love filed the fraudulent form with the court. The effect of the alterations was to make I.L. statutorily ineligible for cancellation of removal. Relying on the fraudulent form filed by Love, the immigration court denied I.L.’s application for cancellation of removal and ordered his voluntary departure from the United States.
I.L. appealed that decision. In a brief filed for the government in 2010, Love asserted that the form in question made I.L. ineligible for cancellation of removal. Relying on the fraudulent form, the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the immigration court’s order.
On January 15, 2016, Love pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, a misdemeanor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 242. He was then sentenced to thirty days’ imprisonment and one year of supervised release, and he was ordered to pay $12,000.00 in restitution.
Love’s conduct violated Colo. RPC 3.3(a)(1) (a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal); Colo. RPC 3.3(a)(3) (a lawyer shall not knowingly offer false evidence, and a lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures if the lawyer comes to know that false material evidence has been offered); Colo. RPC 8.4(b) (a lawyer shall not commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects); Colo. RPC 8.4(c) (a lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation); and Colo. RPC 8.4(d) (a lawyer shall not engage in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice).