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T. Michael Barrett is a Wisconsin-licensed
attorney, whose address of record is P.O.
Box 5061, Elm Grove, Wisconsin 53122-5061.
On August 16, 2011, Barrett was charged with
one count of possession of a firearm
silencer. According to the criminal
complaint, Barrett purchased a semiautomatic
.22 caliber handgun with an attached
silencer from M.B., a confidential informant
working with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The
complaint states that M.B. had a series of
recorded phone conversations with Barrett
regarding the sale of two firearms, one of
which had an attached silencer. During the
phone conversations, Barrett acknowledged
the illegality of the silencer, but agreed
to meet M.B. in the parking lot of a local
shopping mall to look at the firearms. Law
enforcement monitored the meeting by video
and audio recording and by surveillance.
The complaint states that Barrett told M.B.
that the silencer was “highly, highly,
highly, highly illegal,” calling it a “hit
man’s gun,” but told M.B. that if caught
with a silencer, he would simply “say I was
going to dispose of it[.]” Barrett
purchased two firearms and the silencer, but
removed the silencer from the .22 caliber
firearm and placed it in a separate metal
box. Recordings from the meeting show that
Barrett, an attorney, told M.B.:
I ain’t even going to put that in the
same box.... That way they [the police]
have to have a warrant to get in there on my
way home…. I put it in a metal box. They
can’t x-ray that fucker without a warrant
and then … I can say, well I was just going
to destroy it for a client[.] Then we’re
protected by attorney-client privilege.
They can never get the shit out of me!
Barrett placed the firearms and silencer in
the trunk of his car, and was subsequently
arrested and charged.
Beginning on February 17, 2014, a jury trial
was held. On February 21, 2014, the jury
found Barrett guilty. On April 18, 2014,
Barrett was sentenced to five months in the
House of Correction, a sentence that he
served.
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By engaging in conduct leading to a criminal
felony conviction for possession of a firearm
silencer in violation of Wis. Stat. §
941.298(2), Attorney T. Michael Barrett
violated SCR 20:8.4(b), which states, “It is
professional misconduct for a lawyer to commit
a criminal act that reflects adversely on the
lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness
as a lawyer in other respects.”
Barrett has no prior discipline.
For the above misconduct, and in accordance
with SCR 22.09(3), Attorney T. Michael Barrett
is hereby publicly reprimanded.
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