In federal court filing, U.S. District Court, filing a lawsuit that called for the Practice Book rules he allegedly violated to be "struck down as unconstitutionally broad and void for vagueness."
Mark Villeneuve is remembered in Connecticut legal circles as the guy a few years back who lied on his résumé when applying for a job as an attorney with a state agency.
Caught in his apparent deceit, he made an embarrassing situation worse. He claimed that he hadn't really applied for that job. Someone stole his identity.
The state's chief disciplinary counsel didn't buy his story and Villeneuve was suspended from practicing law in Connecticut. Villeneuve, now living in Maine, no-showed his disciplinary hearing, as well as subsequent court hearings in Connecticut, but sources say someone matching his description has been seen "skulking around" courtrooms with dyed hair.
Because a few years have now gone by, that suspension has become a disbarment. If Villeneuve ever wanted to practice in Connecticut again, he would have to reapply to the bar.
"Instead of saying 'Oh, I'm sorry, my bad,' he comes up with his ID was stolen. It wasn't him and it spirals into this incredible story in state and federal court," said Mark Dubois, who was chief disciplinary counsel in 2008 when they began investigating Villeneuve.
Now Dubois said the Villeneuve saga has gone from "bad to worse."
Last spring, Villeneuve, representing himself, filed a federal lawsuit against various state and federal officials, including President Barack Obama, Connecticut U.S. District Judges Alvin Thompson and Janet Bond Arterton, Governor Dannel Malloy, state Attorney General George Jepsen and even Dubois.
He sought an injunction "enjoining them from interfering with a planned public protest pursuant to the First Amendment" at which Villeneuve said he will commit a public suicide "in protest of the state and federal courts egregious deprivation of his constitutional rights and access to the courts."
Not surprisingly, Assistant Attorney General Phil Miller filed a motion to dismiss the suit, a motion that U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa L. Bryant granted in mid-February. "Here given the state and federal governments' incontrovertible interest in the preservation of life in addition to Connecticut's criminalization of assisting in suicide, this Court has no authority to issue an injunction…" wrote Bryant.
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