Complaint against Gardner Edgerton district’s lawyer dismissed, his firm says

A complaint against the former attorney for the Gardner Edgerton School District has been dismissed.

That’s according to the Kansas City law firm where the attorney is a partner. Officials with the Kansas judicial system’s Office of the Disciplinary Administrator would not confirm the dismissal as the office does not acknowledge the existence of complaints against attorneys unless action is taken against them.

The complaint only became public because Rep. Bill Sutton, a Gardner Republican, announced earlier this month that he had filed one against Joseph Hatley.

Sutton accused Hatley of being verbally abusive to school board members at a Feb. 27 meeting in which three top district officials were dismissed. Hatley later resigned as board attorney.

In a news release, his firm, Spencer Fane Britt & Brown, said the complaint was dismissed after the administrator found Hatley had done nothing to violate the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct.

This story was originally published March 31, 2014 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Complaint against Gardner Edgerton district’s lawyer dismissed, his firm says."