A divided Louisiana Supreme Court has suspended a Baton Rouge lawyer and former prosecutor for a year for a violent 2017 encounter with his then-estranged wife and another man.

But a state agency that investigates and prosecutes complaints against lawyers is asking the high court to reconsider what it calls an “unduly lenient” sanction for David deBlieux and increase his suspension to two years.

Even the Supreme Court’s chief justice, Bernette Johnson, labeled the one-year suspension “too lenient” and said a two-year suspension is the appropriate sanction. Justice William Crain agreed with Johnson.

The Supreme Court’s Jan. 29 ruling states that deBlieux drove to his estranged wife’s rental home at 2 a.m. on March 4, 2017, with his two young daughters asleep in the car and kicked in the locked front door. He pushed her to the side, struck her male guest, wrestled him to the floor and continued to strike him, the court said.

DeBlieux then returned to his residence, gathered his wife’s clothing, drove back to her home with the children in the car, tossed the clothes onto the driveway and left. the high court said.

Within a few minutes, deBlieux returned again to her house and tried to retrieve his son’s soccer equipment and uniform from her locked car. When she refused him access to the vehicle, deBlieux pushed her out of the way and used a nearby concrete cinder block to smash the car’s rear driver’s side window. Their daughters were awake in deBlieux’s vehicle and crying at that point, the court said.

An arrest warrant accused deBlieux of home invasion, criminal damage to property, domestic abuse with child endangerment, and simple battery.

Because he had previously worked for the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office for 10 years, the office recused itself and the neighboring 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office was assigned the case. That office offered to dispose of any prosecution if deBlieux successfully completed a pretrial intervention program, which he did in October 2017, the Supreme Court said.

Justices John Weimer, Jeff Hughes and James Genovese, and retired Judge James Boddie Jr., sitting for Justice Marcus Clark, voted for the one-year suspension. They said deBlieux caused physical injuries to his then-wife and her guest, and property damage to her home and vehicle. 

“His actions also created the potential for even more serious injuries, or even death, to his wife, her guest, or himself, and the potential for harm to his children,” the majority wrote.

When reached by phone Thursday, deBlieux had no comment.

Johnson, the high court chief justice, said she agreed with the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board’s recommendation of a two-year suspension. She said she found it especially troubling that the events took place around 2 a.m. with deBlieux’s children present.

“Considering (his) criminal actions satisfied the elements of a felony (unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling), as well as three misdemeanor offenses (domestic abuse battery, simple battery, and simple criminal damage to property), I find the discipline imposed by the majority of this court too lenient,” she wrote.

Justice Scott Crichton said a suspension of a year and a day would suffice because it would require deBlieux to petition the court for reinstatement, whereas a suspension of just a year doesn’t include such a requirement. A reinstatement application would give the court the ability to evaluate deBlieux’s “character and fitness to re-engage in the noble practice of law,” Crichton said.

He acknowledged that the facts surrounding the domestic incident “give me great pause.”

“Such intentional and violent behavior falls far short of that expected in our profession,” he stated.

In the Office of Disciplinary Counsel’s rehearing application filed Feb. 6, ODC chief disciplinary counsel Charles Plattsmier said the one-year suspension is inconsistent with prior Louisiana Supreme Court decisions with similar facts. He also pointed to the fact that the Legislature has enhanced penalties for domestic violence when young children are present.

The ODC is an arm of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board and is charged with all prosecutorial functions.

The ODC had argued, and continues to argue, for a two-year suspension. In the alternative, Plattsmier said deBlieux should be suspended for two years with all but a year and a day deferred “so that he is required to demonstrate his fitness to return to the practice of law.”

The Supreme Court’s majority opinion said deBlieux repaired the damage to his then-wife’s front door and paid for a replacement window in her car.

The ODC noted that deBlieux and his wife are now divorced.