Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch is appealing two contempt of court findings by Judge Michael Silverstein stemming from comments Lynch made to reporters during the lead paint trial.

Lynch was fined for violating the court’s rules of professional conduct.

Filed on Thursday, the brief asks the court to overturn the decision, which carried two fines totaling $15,000 to be paid from the attorney general’s personal funds.

The first comment was made on Nov. 28, 2005, just after Lynch left a lead paint court hearing. Lynch’s remark was quoted in The Providence Journal describing the defense lawyers as “those who would spin and twist the facts,” and he was fined $5,000 by Silverstein who had warned both sides to not criticize each other outside the courtroom.

In the brief, Lynch said the quote can be taken out of context and he was “goaded by defense statements relayed to him by the press.”

The second charge of contempt of court against Lynch occurred after a comment to a Boston Globe reporter immediately after the jury announced its verdict against the former lead paint manufacturers on Feb. 23, 2006.

Lynch was quoted saying, “The legal process has held them accountable and said you can’t duck and run,” which cost him $10,000.

In the brief, Lynch defended the comment, arguing that as attorney general, “the verdict was a matter of public interest” on which he should be allowed to speak and that he had not violated the rules of professional conduct.

“It appears that the fines were imposed solely to punish the Attorney General, which is an impermissible use of civil contempt power,” Lynch said in the brief.

In an unusual show of support, the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union said yesterday it has filed a brief with the Rhode Island Supreme Court urging the court to reverse the fines against Lynch and defended his right to speak publicly about the lead paint trial.

ngarcia@projo.com