• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Former state Rep. Shawn Tornow of Sioux Falls asked the South Dakota Supreme Court on Tuesday to give him only a private reprimand for his actions in two cases when he was an assistant city attorney for Sioux Falls.
• The State Bar's Disciplinary Board has recommended Tornow, who was a state representative in 2005-2006 and 2011-2012, be publicly censured for violating rules governing lawyers' conduct. A public reprimand would involve publication of that reprimand in the State Bar's monthly newsletter.
• The Disciplinary Board found that while Tornow was an assistant city attorney, he acted unfairly by not giving some information to a former city commissioner involved in a case before the city's Ethics Board. The board also found Tornow had an improper conversation with another lawyer representing Tornow's daughter on a traffic violation.
• Court records show Tornow had a telephone conversation on May 18, 2010, with former city council member Kermit Staggers about the Ethics Board's handling of a case involving Staggers. Staggers later called requesting a copy of a recording of the conversation, incorrectly referring to it as the "May 17 conversation." Tornow told him there was no such recording, but did not inform Staggers that was because the conversation actually occurred May 18.
• Robert Frieberg, a lawyer for the Disciplinary Board, called Tornow's response unfair to Staggers.
• "A lawyer has to be fair and tell the truth. That's what the rule says," Frieberg told the Supreme Court.
• Tornow said he was "hypersensitive" to the confidentiality surrounding Ethics Board proceedings and he believed the phone conversation was a confidential work product. He said he now realizes he should have asked Staggers if he was referring to the May 18 conversation.
• The court also considered an improper conversation which Tornow is accused of having when his daughter fought 2009 city citations for speeding and failing to wear a seat belt. The city attorney's office could not prosecute the citations because Tornow worked there, but they could be prosecuted under state law. Court records indicate that when his daughter's lawyer called, Tornow told the lawyer there was no agreement allowing the county to prosecute such a case. The case initially was dismissed but later prosecuted under state law.
• Frieberg said Tornow should not have interfered in the case against his daugh

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