A statewide panel has scheduled a public hearing next month of a grievance brought against Norwich attorney Sikandar I. Rana by Superior Court Judge John M. Newson.

Newson submitted a complaint to a local grievance panel in November 2016 after speaking to Rana privately and on the record about his behavior in the Norwich courthouse known as Geographical Area 21, according to a complaint pending before the Statewide Grievance Committee. Rana handles mostly criminal, family and immigration matters and often has business at GA21.

"Over the past year, counsel has engaged in a continuing and increasing course of disrespectful, unprofessional, and confrontational conduct towards court clerks, court marshals, and at least one client while at the Norwich Judicial District Courthouse on professional business," Newson wrote.

The local grievance panel, consisting of two attorneys and one non-attorney, made a finding in January that there is probable cause that Rana engaged in misconduct and violated the Rules of Professional Conduct with respect to competence, confidentiality of information, impartiality and decorum and misconduct.

"The panel is shocked at (Rana's) bellicose, obnoxious, crude, lewd, profane and totally offensive conduct," the finding said. 

The Statewide Grievance Committee will hear the case on June 8 in Bridgeport unless Rana's attorney, Daniel J. Horgan, can work out an agreement ahead of time with the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which gets involved in attorney grievances after a probable cause finding has been made and is authorized to help resolve grievances by agreement. 

"The disciplinary counsel and myself have been working cooperatively in the last couple of months on a negotiated resolution that's partly based on attorney Rana appearing before Judge Newson for the last four months without incident and representing his clients the best he can and doing a professional job," Horgan said. "Underlying all this, I would say the respected Judge Newson runs a tight ship and attorney Rana is a very zealous advocate for his clients. Sometimes those two worlds clash."

The committee could dismiss the complaint or impose sanctions ranging from a reprimand to a recommendation that Rana seek treatment or a referral to Superior Court for suspension of license, disbarment or other discipline.

Rana, 49, received his license to practice law in January 2009 and has no public record of previous discipline matters. According to the grievance file, he emigrated from Lahore, Pakistan, in 2004 and became a U.S. citizen. He obtained his law degree from Franklin Pierce University in 2006 and worked as a temporary assistant clerk in the Norwich courthouse from 2007 to 2010.

In his response to Newson's complaint, Rana asserts Newson has a "personality conflict" with him. He said others in the courthouse have issues with him, too, and that when he worked as a temporary clerk, he was subjected to ethnic and racial harassment by some judicial marshals and male clerks. He wrote that he endured a humiliating investigation by the FBI after one of the marshals reported to authorities that Rana intended to blow up the courthouse. In August 2015, he was charged with breach of peace after an altercation with two marshals who told him to stop cursing because there were children around and then asked him to leave the courthouse. The case was referred to the Danielson Judicial District, where eventually the charge was reduced to an infraction and Rana paid a $90 fine.

Rana admitted to making an inappropriate and vulgar statement to a clerk on one occasion, but said Newson's admonishment of him and the threat of disciplinary action constitutes extreme behavior and judicial overreach.

Newson wrote in the complaint that marshals and clerks began complaining about Rana soon after Newson was assigned to the court in September 2015. The staff members said Rana would hang around the lobby and make comments intended to incite members of the public to confront the marshals and would engage in similar conduct inside the vestibule of the clerk's office, according to the complaint.

Newson wrote that he called Rana into his chambers on Nov. 19, 2015, and with clerk Kara Jean Venditto present counseled him about his behavior. Within five minutes of the meeting, Venditto told Newson that Rana had approached her and said, "What, you're going to be a witness against me now?"

On Nov. 2, 2016, Rana followed a clerk through a secured access door into the civil clerk's office, cursing and voicing his displeasure about a ruling that Newson had made, according to the complaint. He left the office only after being told to do so by Chief Clerk David Gage, according to the complaint.  

The following day, Rana swore at and belittled his client during a family relations meeting, telling her to "Shut the (expletive) up," according to the complaint. Later that day, he refused to move his phone from a table when a clerk told him it was interfering with the nearby microphone, then "flipped off" the clerk when a marshal took the phone and asked him to step out of the courtroom, the complaint says.

On Nov. 4, when Newson asked clerk Deanna Stewart to tell Rana to stay at the courthouse until he spoke to Newson about the matters, Rana responded that since he only had two clients that day, she should tell the judge he would be home masturbating. At the time, Rana was preparing for a trip to Pakistan to visit his ill sister, according to his response.

That day, Newson cleared the courtroom of all but a few staff and told Rana on the record that he would be filing a grievance. Newson issued a standing order that Rana was not to enter nonpublic areas of the courthouse without the permission of the presiding judge and said he had instructed the marshals to take him into custody and call state police if he violated the order.

A transcript indicates that Rana asked Newson near the end of the session, "Have I ever been inappropriate to you, your honor, or to this court?"

Newson responded that it didn't matter and told Rana that as an officer of the court, he is required to conduct himself in a professional manner and that court staff  "deserve no less respect than the men and women that wear the robes in this court."

"So whether it's me or them, if you disrespect them, you've disrespected me," Newson said.

k.florin@theday.com