Lawyer
Has Sex With Murder Client
The
state Supreme Court on announced a two-year suspension for a
lawyer caught having jail house sex with a triple-murder defendant
she was representing.
Theresa
Olson’s suspension begins Friday; she must undergo a psychological
evaluation before she can be reinstated. Earlier, Olson and
the state Bar Association had agreed to a one-year suspension,
but the high court rejected the bar’s recommendation. In 2002,
guards outside a King County Jail conference room saw Olson
with her dress pulled up and her client, Sebastian Burns, standing
behind her with his pants down.
At
the time of the encounter, Olson was 43 and married; Burns was
26. Olson was removed from the case, and Burns was given new
counsel. He was convicted last year, along with a friend, of
beating the friend’s sister and parents to death at their Bellevue
home in 1994.
