The Oregon State Bar disciplinary committee will meet Wednesday to determine punishment for J. Scott McAlister, a former Oregon assistant attorney general and Utah Corrections inspector general.
The committee could decide to disbar McAlister on grounds of moral turpitude. He pleaded guilty a year ago to a misdemeanor charge of distributing pornography in Utah.In exchange for his plea, felony charges were reduced to the single misdemeanor.
McAlister, who worked for the Oregon Justice Department for nearly 17 years - mostly as counsel for the Department of Corrections - was accused of taking pornographic films from a Multnomah County case. He served a brief sentence in a Utah jail and moved to Arizona upon his release.
The Oregon State Bar filed a complaint following the conviction, saying that McAlister's conduct violated professional standards. McAlister denied that contention.
McAlister left Oregon in early January 1989, saying that he could no longer work with Corrections Director Michael Francke.
Francke was murdered a little more than a week later, on Jan. 12, 1989. Frank E. Gable was convicted of the murder in June.
McAlister's name came up several times during the murder investigation, including a legislative inquiry into allegations of criminal activities within the Corrections Department. And in court documents, Gable's defense lawyers introduced him as a potential suspect before the trial.
McAlister denied knowledge of illegal activities in the department. He also took and passed a lie-detector test in which he denied any knowledge of Francke's murder.
Shortly after McAlister became inspector general of Utah's Corrections Department, his former secretary in Utah turned him in to federal authorities, saying that he used pornographic materials in an attempt to coerce her into group sex.
The secretary also sued the department and McAlister for sexual harassment and was awarded a $95,000 settlement.