from staff
The Florida Bar recently announce the Florida Supreme Court in recent court orders disciplined 19 attorneys, disbarring one, suspending 11, placing six on probation and reprimanding six. Restitution was ordered in two cases. Some attorneys received more than one form of discipline.
None of the attorneys on the current discipline list are from the Jacksonville area. The following lawyers are disciplined:
• Benjamin Robert Metsch, 20801 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 307, Aventura, disbarred, effective retroactively to April 19, 2007, pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Metsch pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, a felony.
• Mary McDowell Callaway, 1600 N. Palafox St., P.O. Box 36097, Pensacola, ordered suspended immediately pursuant to an Aug. 21 court order. In its petition for emergency suspension, The Florida Bar stated that Callaway has continuously failed to comply with court orders requiring accounting of funds in numerous veterans’ guardianship and probate cases in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The Bar maintains that Callaway appears to be causing “great public harm” by misappropriating personal property and government funds in those guardianship and probate cases, as well as in other legal transactions. Callaway is also ordered to deposit into a specified trust account all sums received from the practice of law and to immediately notify the Department of Veterans’ Affairs of her suspension.
• Martin Kirby Watson, 944 4th St. N., Suite 800, St. Petersburg, ordered suspended immediately pursuant to an Aug. 17 court order. In its petition for emergency suspension, The Florida Bar stated that, as administrator of a trust and will, Watson requested that the personal representative/trustee issue a $288,712.52 check for final distribution to the heirs. He distributed only $50,000 to the heirs and represented that the remainder of the money remained tied up in probate. In September 2006, Watson admitted that he had personally used all but about $80,000 of the proceeds and was unable to pay it back. In February 2007, Watson’s father made a written offer on his son’s behalf to repay some of the money owed through installments of cash shares and promissory notes. However, as of the July 20 filing of the petition, no money had been repaid.
• Susan K.W. Erlenbach, 2532 Garden St., Titusville, suspended, effective immediately, pursuant to an Aug. 28 court order. Erlenbach failed to comply with a July 18 court order requiring that she close out her law practice, protect the interest of existing clients and accept no new business. She had been put on probation for two years in September 2005 and ordered to have an accountant review her trust records and submit quarterly reports to the Bar.
• Cathy Lynn Harrison, 505 S. 56th St., Tampa, suspended for 28 months, retroactive to March 20, 2006, and placed on three years’ probation upon her reinstatement to The Florida Bar, pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Harrison also is required to enter into a contract with Florida Lawyers Assistance Inc., which will encompass her suspension and probation. Harrison began using methamphetamines to self-treat her diagnosed Bipolar Disorder. She violated Florida Bar Rules regulating advertising, failed to represent clients in a diligent manner, failed to keep clients informed and failed to respond to Bar inquiries into a number of complaints filed against her.
• Vinette Morris Hudson, P.O. Box 801958, Santa Clarita, Calif., suspended for 91 days, effective 30 days from an Aug. 30 court order. A previously ordered probationary period was immediately revoked. Hudson failed to provide adequate representation to and communication with clients in Orange County, Fla., failed to refund unearned legal fees, failed to pay a nonlawyer employee her final pay check or provide her with a W-2 form and failed to provide a written response to the Bar’s investigative inquiries.
• Gregory A. Kaiser, 5736 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, suspended for 30 days, effective 30 days from an Aug. 30 court order. Kaiser oversaw a trust and drafted new testamentary documents for a client that allowed her to ignore certain aspects of a prior trust. He also drafted testamentary documents that provided him a potential interest in the estate for a short time. In another matter, Kaiser failed to adequately supervise a paralegal who forged attorney’s signatures to legal documents that she alone had created.
• Robert Joseph Locker, 2039 W. 1st St., Suite 4, Fort Myers, ordered suspended immediately pursuant to an Aug. 21 court order. Locker is ordered to submit to an evaluation by Florida Lawyer’s Assistance Inc. Locker admitted to regular use of heroin, which resulted in foreclosure on his home and eviction from a rental home. He also missed court dates and misused client funds by failing to return unused funds to clients when requested. In its petition for emergency suspension, The Florida Bar stated that Locker appears to be causing “great public harm” as a result of his drug use, which has resulted in the neglect of his law practice.
• Gregory A. Meeks Jr., 37 N. Orange Ave., Suite 500, Orlando, suspended for 91 days retroactive to Oct. 25, 2006, pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Meeks was indefinitely suspended from practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit when he failed to file appellate briefs in a criminal case on behalf of a client assigned to him by the court. He also failed to respond in writing to a show cause order issued by the 11th Circuit court.
• Samuel Andrew Mutch, 2114 N.W. 40th Terrace, Suite, A-1, Gainesville, suspended for 30 days, effective 30 days from an Aug. 30 court order. (Modified by a Sept. 6 court order so that the suspension will begin Dec. 1.) Mutch also was directed to complete The Florida Bar’s Professionalism Workshop. Because Mutch believed that a prior disciplinary action by the Florida Supreme Court would have required him to appear before the entire panel of judges in the Federal Court in Connecticut to get permission to handle a case in that state, he instead had a paralegal admitted to practice in Washington, D.C., but not in Florida, apply for pro hoc vice status. The affidavit requesting pro hoc vice status was misleading. Mutch also failed to inform his client that the paralegal lacked experience as a “first chair” lawyer in a federal courtroom. He also faxed a false, unexecuted subpoena form to a potential witness indicating that the paralegal was the issuing officer.
• Barry R. Nager, 5703 Red Bug Lake Road, PMB 211, Winter Springs, suspended for 90 days, effective 30 days from an Aug. 30 court order. Upon reinstatement, Nager will be placed on probation for nine months. Nager, who was semi-retired at the time, delegated responsibility to two nonlawyer employees that enabled both to provide legal advice to clients and one to misappropriate funds from his firm, including funds belonging to a client that should have been held in trust. He failed to properly review his accounts to ensure they complied with the minimum trust accounting rules. Nager also was found by immigration court judges to be inadequately prepared to represent two clients.
• Carl Henry Winslow Jr., 824 Roosevelt Trail, No. 265, Windham, Maine, suspended for three years, effective 30 days from an Aug. 30 court order, and ordered to make restitution in the amount of $7,451.20 to a client. Winslow’s inattention to two personal injury cases filed on behalf of a client resulted in the running of the statute of limitations on her claims. He also failed to timely communicate with his client regarding the status of her cases. In this and several other cases he failed to give clients proper notice that he was moving to Maine. He also failed to act on behalf of clients in pending or proposed lawsuits.
• John Cotter Barrett, 3255 Fernwood Drive, Gulf Breeze, to receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar and placed on probation for two years, effective immediately pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. He also was ordered to attend a Trust Accounting Workshop and to pay restitution totaling $7,250 to two clients. Barrett’s failure to complete service of process on the defendant in a case resulted in the dismissal of the case due to lack of prosecution. Subsequently, Barrett failed to account for and deliver the balance of the costs to his clients in the case. An audit of Barrett’s trust account found that he failed to properly maintain the account.
• Andrea Ruth Bateman, 1999 W. Colonial Drive, Suite 205, Orlando, to receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors and placed on probation for two years, effective immediately pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. She also is required to attend Ethics School. A compliance audit of Bateman’s trust account revealed that she commingled personal and trust funds, had received an overdraft fee on the account and generally was not in substantial compliance with Florida Bar Rules regarding trust accounts.
• Robert Anthony Dees, 543 Harbor Blvd., Suite 501, Destin, to receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors and ordered to attend a Professionalism Workshop, pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Dees facilitated a telephone call in which a client agreed to pay $10,000 in back child support payments if his former wife would drop pending felony charges against him. His client also said he would “not remember any damaging information” about his former wife if he were deposed in a pending medical malpractice case. Dees interjected that he could not counsel his client to not testify to the truth because that would be illegal and unethical. The client subsequently was charged and pled nolo contendere to extortion.
• Susan Lynn Eberle, 5225 Hawford Circle, Orlando, placed on probation for two years pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Eberle’s probationary period is to run consecutive to the two-year probation ordered in a previous case and she must continue participating in the Florida Lawyer’s Assistance, Inc. program. Eberle did not diligently handle the probate of an estate and failed to inform her clients of the status of the probate.
• Donna Greenberg Goldman, 2 S. University Drive, Suite 319, Plantation, to receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Goldman failed to get proper authorization to disburse funds from an escrow account to cover costs and attorney fees.
• Scott Jeffrey Hidnert, 720 N.W. 103rd St., Miami, to receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors and placed on probation for six months, effective immediately, pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Hidnert also was ordered to attend the Bar’s Advertising Workshop and ordered to cease advertising or listing his number under the name Ticketbusters. Hidnert failed to include the name of the city in which he practices law in an advertisement, disseminated an advertisement that contained a false, misleading or deceptive communication about his services, used language in the ad that improperly promised results, failed to include information about the client’s liability for costs and expenses as well as fees and committed other violations of the Bar’s advertising rules.
• David Fred Young, P.O. Box 2687, Bonita Springs, to receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors pursuant to an Aug. 30 court order. Young represented himself in a dissolution of marriage proceeding filed by his now-former wife. During the course of the proceeding, he behaved disrespectfully toward the judge, made filings suggesting that the court was corrupt and engaged in disruptive outbursts.