PERSONAL DEMONS

            This week I decided to look at the case involving Dennis A. Rathburn. Mr. Rathburn was admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1991 and had no problems until 2009. Mr. Rathburn was charged with presenting an altered prescription to a pharmacy which, then led to charges involving “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation and engaging in conduct that adversely reflects on his fitness to practice law.”

            Mr. Rathburn explained to the Disciplinary Board that he had suffered from chronic back and knee pain since 2003 and was being treated by a physician that prescribed narcotic pain meds as part of his treatment.  Like Mr. Rathburn, I suffer from chronic back pain but, not on my worse day have I ever considered presenting an altered document to the pharmacy. On some days the pain is so unbearable I have trouble getting out of bed. What do I do? I suck it up and move on. Maybe that’s what Mr. Rathburn should have done. It would have been a lot less painful and costly.

             Mr. Rathburn did the right thing. He came forward admitted what he did and cooperated with the Disciplinary Board during the investigation. Before deciding on the sanctions for Mr. Rathburn the Board considered the following:

1.      No prior disciplinary action

2.      Full disclosure during investigation

3.      Imposing other penalties or sanction

4.      Chemical Dependency

Under the circumstances, the Board suspended Mr. Rathburn for a period of two years but, stayed the suspension as long as Mr. Rathburn complied with the following

1.      Respondent must remain alcohol/drug free

2.      Must work with Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program 

3.      Attend A.A /N.A. meetings

I believe that the Board made the correct decision  in allowing Mr. Rathburn to continue practicing law. Not only do I believe they made the right decision, I believe they helped Mr. Rathburn get his life back together.

http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2010/2010-ohio-4467.pdf

           

Short Career...

            How does one put so much time and money into law school, be admitted to practice law in Ohio and then be permanently disbarred in a matter of eight years? Unfortunately for someone it seemed rather easy. When I began reading the case about Charles Bursey, I just shook my head in amazement and wondered why he even went to law school.

            Mr. Bursey began practicing law in 2001and if I read the case correctly; Mr. Bursey didn’t have any problems until 2006. He had taken on a client based on a one-third contingency fee. Then in 2008 the client filed a grievance because the attorney had not kept her updated on the case. My question is why the client waited almost two years before filing a grievance? At any rate Mr. Bursey agreed to finish the case for one-fourth contingency fee and agreed to call the client weekly until the case was resolved. Did he follow through with calling the client, No. And as I see it that’s about the time things began to fall apart for this attorney.

            From about that point on Mr. Bursey began violating ethical issues left and right. In August and September of 2007 the Disciplinary Counsel sent notices to Mr. Bursey regarding irregularities in his client trust account. Even I know this is a big no no and to make matters worse, Mr. Bursey didn’t respond to the notice sent. Did he think the problem would go away if he ignored it?  Mr. Bursey went on to use money out of a minors trust account, failed to maintain client records, forged clients signatures, failed to return client phone calls, misappropriated client funds and presented checks from an account that had insufficient funds.

            In total Mr. Bursey was charged with 11 counts of violating Rules of Professional   Conduct.  In 2009 The Ohio Supreme Court disbarred Mr. Bursey permanently. Was it worth it?

           

http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2009/2009-ohio-6180.pdf

           

Forging a Judges signature…are you crazy?

            This week we are taking a look at Mr. Newman. Mr. Newman was 40 years old when he was admitted to the Iowa Bar. He is a solo practitioner in which he practices in the field of real estate, criminal defense, probate and corporate work. You would think he would be busy enough to keep himself out of trouble. Apparently not.

            In 2007 Mr. Newman was assisting another attorney with a conservatorship. Mr. Newman went to court to deliver proposed orders for the Judge to sign. One of those orders was for approval of Mr. Newman becoming a guardian ad litem and the other order the Judge needed to sign off on involved a wrongful death settlement. The Judge and Mr. Newman discussed the cases and the Judge dated and signed the order approving Mr. Newman as the guardian as litem. The Judge dated but did not sign the order approving the wrongful death settlement. The Judge did hand Mr. Newman the orders for filing.

            Mr. Newman then returned to his office and apparently noticed the Judge did not sign the order approving the wrongful death settlement. If this was me and I noticed the Judge had not signed the order, I would have made a phone call to the Judge and asked him if it was an oversight. Do you think he did that? NOPE! He took it upon his self and forged the Judge’s signature. I bet that did not please the Judge.

            A couple of days later the Judge contacted Mr. Newman and said he had a document in front of him that had his signature on it and he did not recognize the signature. At that time Mr. Newman admitted he signed the Judges’ name. Both the Judge and Mr. Newman reported the incident to the Board. The Judge told the Board that it was an oversight on his part for not signing the order and that Mr. Newman was remorseful.

            The Commission found that until this incident Mr. Newman had a “record of a life of service and integrity” and found this to be “an isolated instance of unethical conduct.” The Commission “privately admonished the attorney” and “requested he accept 120 hours of court-appointed criminal cases with pay.” Apparently the Board did not like this decision by the Commission and appealed the outcome. I was asking myself, what more could they do to Mr. Newman? It is my opinion that the Board drug this case out a little bit longer just so they could say on record “ATTRONEY REPRIMANDED.”  Wonder how much did that end up costing taxpayers in Iowa?

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ia-supreme-court/1006526.html

Taxes…Who wants to pay taxes?

So there was an attorney, Ms. S. who, was admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1978. She had a solo practice and had worked as a domestic relations attorney for most of her career.

In 2002 The Dayton Bar Association filed a complaint against Ms. S. for charging illegal fees and not promptly paying client funds that the client was entitled to. Ms. S. eventually reimbursed the client and the Board decided since Ms. S. reimbursed the client and cooperated in the proceedings, she should be publicly reprimanded. Case closed. If that was the worst of her problems, she would have been ok, in my opinion.

Come to find out Ms. S. had not filed federal, state or local taxes from approximately 1979 through 2001. Not only had she not paid those taxes, she had also not withheld federal income taxes or contributed to FICA for her employees for about the same amount of time. I wonder how one goes roughly 21 years without paying taxes.  I don’t believe any of us like paying taxes but, we do. Now in defense of Ms. S. the case I read stated she turned herself in and did end up filing delinquent tax returns for the tax years 1989-2001. If that was me, I would still be sitting in federal prison!

In 2007 Ms. S. pled guilty to failure to collect or pay taxes (felony), failure to file tax returns (misdemeanor) and failing to report her income from 1999, all $250,450.00 (gross). Ms. S. was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and as of 2008 she still owed approximately $200,000.00.

In a news article from the Dayton Daily News website, Ms. S. stated the following reasons as to why she broke the law: “fear of being discovered, dysfunctional childhood brought on by an alcoholic, suicidal father who humiliated her and another father figure who employed her, but didn’t withhold taxes.” She even stated she knew this” would come out.” In the article Ms. S. goes on to say that she is losing everything. Well Ms. S. maybe it wouldn’t have come to this if you would have paid your taxes. 

The Ohio Supreme Court disbarred Ms. S. permanently.

http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/PIO/summaries/2009/0430/082403.asp

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11360CA52DFE9110&p_docnum=1

Poor Judgment or Ethical Violation...Part II

               Mr. District Attorney has decided to do the right thing and resign! What took him so long to decide that’s what he should do? Was he waiting for a text response from his peers? I guess we shouldn’t question why he decided to resign but, be thankful he did! By doing so, he is saving the city lots of time and money from having to have him removed from office.

               Mr. District Attorney, who in my opinion, was abusing his authority by trying to develop personal relationships with women who were already in vulnerable situations. The story involves a woman, with whom Mr. District Attorney had prosecuted her ex. Since that time two other women have come forward with similar allegations involving the 50 year old attorney who has been practicing law for a number of years.

               The irony behind this elected official resigning from office is that for a number of years Mr. District Attorney was the chairman of the Crime Victims’ Rights Board. This article states that the Board “investigates and sanctions public officials who violate crime victim’s rights.” Maybe he resigned from that office because he was having a hard time trying to find away to punish himself.

               http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/wisconsin-prosecutor-ken-kratz-to-resign-over-sexting-accusations/19650521?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk2%7C173959