In re Plaza-Martínez

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

The appellant, Assistant Federal Public Defender Joannie Plaza-Martinez, challenges a monetary sanction imposed for what the court below termed a lack of candor. Her appeal requires us to jump a jurisdictional hurdle and, once that hurdle has been cleared, to evaluate the propriety of the sanction. After careful consideration, we find the sanction insupportable.

The stage can easily be set. In the district court, the appellant acted as counsel for Juan Felix Santiago-Rivera, a criminal defendant who pleaded guilty to a number of charges arising out of a violent carjacking.…