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In 2012, the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel appointed Jennifer Mrachek to represent an incarcerated client in the client’s resentencing matter. From 2012 until 2019, Mrachek investigated her client’s case by conducting multiple interviews, obtaining expert reports, communicating regularly with the client and coordinating work on a mitigation video. Though Mrachek’s OADC timekeeping records show that she drafted a motion for a resentencing order in 2019, she never filed the motion with the presiding court, according to the disciplinary opinion.
In July 2020, Mrachek learned that she lost her client’s file after her computer and external hard drive were damaged. When OADC notified Mrachek in late 2020 that it reassigned the case to substitute counsel, she still hadn’t told her client that his file was lost. The opinion noted Mrachek never communicated with her client after the first week of July 2020, including about assisting him to apply for an early release program available to individuals at high risk for contracting COVID-19.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Mrachek’s stipulation to discipline and publicly censured her. The public censure, which carries the requirement that Mrachek attend disciplinary authorities’ ethics course, took effect Dec. 4.