Court takes lawyer's license for three years in ethics violation

A former municipal prosecutor lost her license to practice law for three years under a state Supreme Court ruling issued Thursday. The Washington State Bar Association had sought disbarment.

Margita A. Dornay violated legal ethics rules by lying on the witness stand on behalf of her then-boyfriend, the court ruled. She did so "primarily to keep her ongoing affair ... secret," the opinion said.

Dornay, who was married and practicing law in Issaquah at the time, was involved in a romantic relationship with King County sheriff's Deputy David Hick, who was going through a divorce. During a 2002 divorce hearing, Dornay testified that she never knew Hick to fly into a rage.

Several months later, however, she filed for a protection order claiming just the opposite: "He would push, grab and restrain me," she wrote in the petition for protection. "He would throw furniture and various other objects. He would rant ... until I was a groveling basket case conceding my faults and professing my love."

She later admitted that the testimony in the divorce hearing was false.

A judge later suspended Hick's visitation rights with his child and Hick was barred from carrying a firearm based on Dornay's statements in the protection order. Hick also lost his job.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court decided her misconduct not only broke legal ethics rules, it put Hick's child at risk. The Supreme Court's ruling satisfied neither Dornay nor the State Bar. The bar argued that Dornay, who had practiced law for about a decade, should lose her law license altogether. Dornay argued that there should be no sanction because there was no misconduct. She said the divorce testimony was given under duress because she was afraid of Hick.

Dornay had been a partner in the law firm of Kenyon Dornay Marshall and a contract prosecutor for the city of Kenmore when she met Hick.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com