Lawyer vows to fight her disbarment

ANDOVER -- Controversial lawyer and former gubernatorial candidate Barbara Johnson said she will fight her disbarment this week by the state's highest court to the US Supreme Court.

Johnson, who's been highly critical of the state court system, called the disbarment process a ``kangaroo court" and compared Massachusetts to a Third World country.

``They'll disbar me, which is fine; I'll write my judicial murder mysteries," Johnson told The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence on Thursday. ``I'm going to kill off a judge in the prologue of every one. It'll be like a Where's Waldo murder mystery, and I'll use real names for the judges."

Johnson was disbarred for charges including putting sensitive confidential information from two of her cases on her website, refusing to pay legal fines after being held in contempt, and conducting herself in an ``insulting, vituperative" manner in court.

Judge Francis Spina of the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor Wednesday of the disbarment recommendation by the Board of Bar Overseers, writing that ``the judicial system and the public must be protected from her repeated misconduct."