CHARLESTON – A former high-ranking assistant U.S. Attorney has had her law license annulled.
The West Virginia Supreme Court ordered the license of Monica Dillon Coleman be annulled by voluntary consent on January 24. The state Office of Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel had presented the petition for annulment to the court on December 9.
“The formal affidavit, under seal, of the respondent (Coleman) consenting to voluntary disbarment was separately filed on the same date,” the Supreme Court orders states.
Coleman
| File photo
No further information regarding the reason for the annulment is publicly available. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined comment, and the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals could provide no further information because the affidavit has been sealed.
The Supreme Court order says the petition against Coleman was filed in accordance with Rule 3.25 of the Rules of Lawyer Disciplinary Procedure. That rule states that a “lawyer who is the subject of an investigation into or a pending proceeding involving allegations of misconduct may consent to disbarment, but only by delivering to the board an affidavit stating that he or she desires to consent to disbarment.”
It also says the lawyer must be giving consent freely and voluntarily, is not being subjected to coercion or duress, is fully aware of the implications of submitting consent and acknowledges the material facts so alleged are true.
“The lawyer is aware that there is presently pending an investigation into, or proceedings involving, allegations that there exists grounds for the lawyer’s discipline, the nature of which the lawyer shall specifically set forth,” the rule also states. “The lawyer submits his or her consent because the lawyer knows that if the charges were predicated upon the matters under investigation, or if the proceedings were prosecuted, the lawyer could not successfully defend the charges.”
Coleman most recently was Deputy Criminal Chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.
According to West Virginia State Bar records, Coleman was admitted to the bar on September 26, 2000. She filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and that case still is pending in federal court.
As recently as September, Coleman still was an assistant U.S. Attorney.
In a 2018 press release by former U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart, he called Coleman “a veteran prosecutor with a record of aggressive, fearless prosecution.”
The 2021 West Virginia Human Rights Commission annual report said Coleman was a 2000 graduate of West Virginia University College of Law and had been an assistant U.S. Attorney since 2005. At the time, she served as the office’s Lead Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Attorney and as Criminal Civil Rights Coordinator.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number 24-717