The Florida Bar announced the Florida Supreme Court recently disciplined 19 attorneys, disbarring five, suspending 11, placing four on probation, reprimanding two and ordering three to pay restitution or a refund. Some attorneys received more than one form of discipline.
Two of the attorneys are from Jacksonville. Rodney Glenn Gregory was suspended for 90 days following a Feb. 7 court order. Gregory wrote a series of false financial escrow letters for Russell Lee Parker Jr., alleging that he was holding funds in escrow pending the closings on specific properties. In fact, for most of the letters for which he was paid $100 each, Gregory held no such funds. In the instances when he did hold cash funds, he did not deposit them in any bank account. A federal grand jury indicted Parker for a mortgage fraud scheme. At his trial, Gregory testified to writing false financial escrow letters.
Also, Michael Francis Gallagher was suspended effective 30 days from a Feb. 5 court order, with the matter referred to the chief judge of the 4th Judicial Circuit for the appointment of a referee. In October 2007, Gallagher was found guilty of one count of vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony, for the death he caused on March 25, 2006, by operating a motor vehicle in a reckless manner. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The rest of the disciplines are as follows:
• Milton Hargraves Baxley II, 1929 N.W. 12th Terrace, Gainesville, disbarred for five years effective retroactively to Dec. 19, 2006, following a Feb. 18 court order. In August 2006, Baxley was convicted of two counts of indirect criminal contempt, interpreted by the federal court as a felony. He had been barred by the IRS in 2003 from representing clients before the IRS but continued to do so.
• Carrie Ann Brooks, 660 S.E. 15th St., Apt. 104, Dania Beach, disbarred, effective 30 days from a Feb. 14 court order, and ordered to pay restitution of $15,222 to one former client. Given the power of attorney to pay bills for an incarcerated client, Brooks used the debit card to make her car payment, pay her cell phone bill and make numerous other personal purchases. Brooks did no apparent legal work for the client and would not account for the funds she used.
• Patrick Joseph Dooley, 1600 S. Federal Highway, Suite 1100, Pompano Beach, disbarred for five years, effective immediately, following a Feb. 14 court order. Following receiving notices of insufficient funds, the Bar audited Dooley’s trust account and found shortages in the trust account because he had misappropriated client funds, using the money for personal purposes and for purposes not authorized by his clients. During the audit period, he transferred more than $500,000 from his trust fund to his firm’s operating account.
• Robert Norman Wilson Jr., 46 Washington St., Ayer, Mass., disbarred, effective immediately following a Feb. 14 court order. In May 2007, Wilson was disbarred in Massachusetts for misconduct that occurred during the two previous years when he served as closing attorney and settlement agent for three unrelated closings. In each case, he failed to pay off underlying mortgages and misappropriated a substantial portion of the funds. Wilson has also been indefinitely suspended by Georgia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
• Paulette Deloise Singleton, 499 N. State Road 434, Suite 2019, Altamonte Springs, disbarred for five years effective 30 days from a Feb. 14 court order. Beginning in early 2006, Singleton began not adequately communicating with clients and failed to diligently pursue their cases. Clients attempting to reach her would find her phone disconnected. One found mail piled outside her office door. In one case, she took a fee and did no work and then only partially refunded the fee. In another case, she was late for a final hearing with no evidence of preparation. Singleton did not respond to the Bar’s complaint but at the final hearing said she suffered from a mental health disability that precluded her from appropriately handling her clients’ matters or responding to the Bar.
• Steven M. Busch, 3900 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 302, Hollywood, suspended for three years, effective 30 days from a Feb. 4 court order, and ordered to pay restitution of $3,500 to one client. Upon reinstatement, Busch will be on probation for three years. Busch failed to
competently represent a client in bankruptcy, filing for liquidation when the client wanted to retain his business and commercial holdings. In another matter, he filed a false bankruptcy petition, knowing the supposed client’s signature was forged. In another case, he represented a company in a case when the employees retaining him were not authorized to initiate a lawsuit. He later agreed to represent the owner against the employees, a conflict of interest.
• Joseph Anthony Garcia-Riveiro, 9240 S.W. 80th Terrace, Miami, suspended for three years, effective Feb. 21, 2007, following a Feb. 14 court order. Additionally before reinstatement, Garcia-Riveiro is ordered to provide a substance abuse evaluation and drug tests attesting to sobriety and a psychological evaluation attesting to his mental fitness to practice. Notified that Garcia-Riveiro had been suspended as a title agent because of failing to timely pay off a loan of approximately $1.4 million, a Bar audit of his trust account records revealed shortages and using client funds for purposes not intended. Later, a relative provided funds to pay the $715,000 shortage.
• Barry Kutun, 5660 Collins Ave., Apt. 6A, Miami Beach, suspended for two years effective retroactively to Oct. 4, 2007, following a Feb. 28 court order (the suspension will remain in effect until Kutun’s civil rights are
restored). Upon reinstatement, Kutun will be on probation for three years. In 2007, Kutun had adjudication withheld on three third-degree felony charges of Child Abuse-Causing No Great Bodily Harm for having consensual sex with a 16-year-old prostitute. He was sentenced to 12 months community control, five years probation and required to enter a sex-offender treatment program.
• Victor Joseph Labruzzo, 1 Century Lane, Apt. 508, Miami Beach, suspended for three years retroactive to Oct. 6, following a Feb. 6 court order, and before reinstatement ordered to take and pass the ethics portion of The Florida Bar Exam. As managing shareholder of a condominium project, Labruzzo received $37,500 from one purchaser and $15,000 from another and wrongly deposited them into the account of a minority owner. Only after criminal charges were brought did Labruzzo return the $15,000. The $37,500 was refunded by one of the managing shareholders. In 2006, Labruzzo was sentenced to six months administrative probation after pleading no contest to one felony count of grand theft second degree and one count grand theft third degree.
• Linda Gurfein Miklowitz, P.O. Box 14922, Tallahassee, suspended with conditions for one year effective 30 days from a Feb. 4 court order and placed on probation for three years after reinstatement, during which time she must practice under the supervision of a mentor or retired counselor. She is to refund $1,500 to one client. Hired by a client to file a discrimination lawsuit, Miklowitz failed to do that. In another case, she never completed a real estate closing on a time share unit she had contracted to purchase. Then she leased both the contracted week and another week for which she had no legal interest.
• Norman Sanders Moss, 813 E. Michigan St., Orlando, suspended until further order of the court, following a Feb. 27 court order, and ordered to stop acting as a personal representative for any estate, as guardian for any ward and as trustee for any trust. The Florida Bar petition for emergency suspension states Moss misappropriated approximately $107,000 held in trust for clients. Moss, who retired from The Florida Bar Jan. 14, 2008, is currently the subject of five other Florida Bar disciplinary matters.
• John Kenneth Renke III, 7637 Little Road, New Port Richey, suspended for 30 days effective 30 days from a Feb. 14 court order. In 2002, Renke was elected circuit judge in Pasco County. The judicial Qualifications Commission found he made a number of misrepresentations in his campaign materials and accepted $95,800 in unlawful campaign contributions. The Florida Supreme Court ordered Renke removed from office in a May 25, 2006, order. By his conduct in the campaign, Renke violated Florida Bar rules of professional conduct.
• Gregg Adam Steinberg, 495 Prosperity Lake Drive, Suite 102, St. Augustine, suspended for 91 days, effective 30 days from a Feb. 7 order, and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and successfully complete any treatment recommended. Steinberg, a former assistant state attorney, manufactured a fraudulent subpoena in a nonexistent criminal case and mailed it to Sprint to obtain the telephone records of a man he believed to be having an affair with his estranged wife. Pursuant to the false subpoena, Steinberg obtained the sought-after cell phone records for a two-year period.
• Anthony Vincent Scalese, 14298 N.W. 23rd St., Pembroke Pines, suspended until further order of the court, following a Feb. 13 court order. Scalese was arrested on Dec. 19, 2007, on five criminal felony charges for theft of client settlements. A Florida Bar audit of his trust account showed he had paid himself fees and costs without signed closing statements and had misappropriated costs and settlement proceeds belonging to third parties in the amount of approximately $94,000.
• Emilie Marie Morgan, 1930 West 10th St., Palmetto, to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar Board of Governors, following a Feb. 14 court order. Before sitting for the Bar exam, Morgan served as a witness for a quitclaim deed — purportedly executed by her mother-in-law for a residence she co-owned with her son, Morgan’s husband. Morgan had her own mother notarize the deed and then had it recorded in public records. But the deed had not been executed by her mother-in-law nor had she authorized the conveyance of her interest in the property.
• Jesus Sanchelima, 235 S.W. 42nd Ave., Miami, to receive a public reprimand, following a Feb. 14 court order. In hiring an associate, Sanchelima had him sign an agreement that would have prohibited him from practicing intellectual property law in Miami Dade County for a year upon leaving the firm, thus violating a rule of the Florida Bar prohibiting such restrictions on practice.
• Mark David Tucker, 1277 Cedar Center Drive, Tallahassee, placed on probation for 36 month months effective immediately following a Feb. 7 court order, and ordered to continue therapy and be monitored by Florida Lawyer Assistance Inc. Tucker’s behavior in several instances in 2007 — including while representing a guardian for an adult ward — raised concerns about his mental and professional competency. He was involuntarily committed under the Hal S. Marchman Alcohol and Other Drug Services Act of 1993 for an assessment and stabilization, which led to a three-month outpatient psychotherapy.