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In its latest disciplinary actions, the Florida Supreme Court disciplined 22 attorneys, disbarring five, suspending 13, and placing three on probation. However, none of the attorneys are members of the Jacksonville Bar Association and none are from the Northeast Florida area.
Some attorneys received more than one form of discipline. Four attorneys were reprimanded and one was ordered to pay restitution.
The following lawyers are disciplined:
• Steven C. Blinn of Orlando was disbarred for five years effective immediately, following a July 3 court order. Blinn misappropriated client funds for personal use. He also failed to apply entrusted funds to their specific purposes. In March, Blinn was emergency suspended by order of the Supreme Court of Florida. He had been arrested the month before on multiple felony charges, including grand theft, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, and sale and delivery of cocaine.
• Alan S. Glueck of Hollywood was disbarred effective 30 days from a June 26 court order. Glueck allowed a paralegal to conduct immigration and labor law business at her office, where he didn’t pay rent or expenses. He had not even met some of his clients until the beginning of disciplinary proceedings. Glueck also made misrepresentations to the Bar in his responses to individual grievances filed by various clients and in a sworn statement during the Bar’s investigation.
• Gerald Jean-Marie Lindor of Pembroke Pines was disbarred effective 30 days from a July 14 court order. Lindor pled guilty to trust accounting violations, including misappropriation of client funds totaling approximately $3 million over the course of the past 10 years.
• Gary Mark Mills of Delray Beach was disbarred effective immediately, following a June 19 court order. Mills pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, a felony. In April, Mills was sentenced to 46 months in prison.
• David Jon Russ of Gainesville was disbarred effective immediately, following a June 26 court order. Russ was found guilty of a third degree felony of driving under the influence for the third time in 10 years, as well as three related misdemeanors. Russ was suspended from practicing law for three years on Sept. 21, 2006.
• Alexander Osondu Akpodiete of West Palm Beach was suspended for six months effective immediately, following a July 10 court order. Akpodiete represented a client in the appeal of an unemployment compensation denial and in an employment discrimination matter. He charged the client $7,000. A portion of the fee was paid with a credit card belonging to the client’s friend, with permission of the card holder. An additional $500 was charged to the client’s credit card. Akpodiete subsequently charged an additional $1,000 to the same credit card without permission of the client. He filed the unemployment appeal but sent the documents to the wrong location. He did not follow up in a timely manner and the appeal was denied. Upon calling the unemployment office and learning that her case had been closed, the client’s friend (whose credit card had been charged) filed a grievance and Akpodiete terminated representation. Akpodiete never filed the discrimination suit.
• Saul Cimbler of Miami was suspended for two years effective retroactive to December 16, 2005, following a June 13 court order. Upon reinstatement, Cimbler is further placed on probation for three years and he is ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,000 to one client. Cimbler is charged with failing to timely file and pay income tax returns.
• Jeffrey Louis Clements of Port Orange was suspended for 91 days effective 30 days from a July 3 court order. Upon reinstatement, Clements is further placed on probation for one year, during which he will be required to attend ethics school. In 10 cases, Clements demonstrated a pattern of failing to diligently and promptly represent clients, failing to inform them, and failing to respond to reasonable requests for information among other rules violations.
• Charles Weaver Cope IV of Clearwater Beach was suspended for 90 days effective 30 days from a June 12 court order. Upon reinstatement, Cope is further placed on probation for three years. In February 2004, Cope resigned from the circuit court bench. He was found guilty by the Judicial Qualifications Commission of public intoxication and the Florida Supreme Court ordered a public reprimand. The incident occurred in 2001, when Cope was attending a judicial education seminar in California at taxpayer expense. In April 2005, Cope pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence in Pinellas County. He was found guilty and sentenced to one year probation. In the summer of 2006, Cope was also arrested and charged with DUI near Browning, Montana.
• Ronald Wayne Davis of Pensacola was suspended effective June 11 following a June 11 court order. In January, in Escambia County Circuit Court, Davis pled guilty to two felony counts of cocaine and two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He was also found guilty of driving under the influence. Davis was sentenced to 11 months and 15 days in jail, placed on probation for 28 months and required to submit to random drug testing and attend DUI school.
• Caswall Adington Hart of Miami was suspended effective immediately following a July 14 court order. According to a Florida Bar grievance committee, Hart has failed to comply with a properly issued subpoena for trust account records and he has failed to show a good reason for his failure to comply. The subpoena was served on Feb. 5.
• Judith Sholom Kahn of St. Petersburg was suspended for one year effective immediately, following a July 14 court order. Khan violated Florida Bar rules related to trust accounting records and procedures. In 1999, Kahn was hired to represent a client in a discrimination case. She filed a notice of appearance, and the client began to pay $100 most months for costs. The case had been dismissed prior to Kahn becoming involved. In 2001, Kahn suffered complications from surgery that resulted in a cognitive deficit. The client continued to pay but the case was not pursued. In 2006, Kahn informed the client that she could no longer practice law. The client then learned from another lawyer that the case had been dismissed. A portion, but not all, of the client’s money was returned.
• Charles Embert Monty Jr. of Clearwater was suspended for 75 days effective 30 days from a June 18 court order. Monty shall pay restitution in the amount of $12,096.50 to one client. Monty represented a woman in a dissolution of marriage proceeding. In November 2001, the woman’s husband was ordered by the court to return marital property received from the wife, including two diamond rings. The rings were delivered to Monty to be held in trust pending final resolution of the issues in the case. Monty gave the rings to his client for the purpose of having them appraised and failed to advise opposing counsel that she had the rings. In June 2003, the court issued a final judgment of dissolution of marriage and awarded the rings to the client’s former husband. The client did not return the rings to Monty or her ex-husband even after receiving a letter from Monty requesting that she do so. At a subsequent court hearing, the client informed the judge that she was unable to locate the diamond rings, which were valued at $11,000.
• R. James Platt Jr. of Lakeland was suspended for 90 days effective 30 days from the date of a July 10 order and directed to attend a trust accounting workshop. In 2002, Platt began representing a client, and between 2002 and 2006, Platt repeatedly borrowed money from the client. When another client asked Platt for an advance for expenses from an anticipated settlement in a pending personal injury case, Platt facilitated a loan between the two clients in the amount of $10,000. When his bookkeeper left her job, Platt stopped creating and maintaining all the required records for his trust account. An audit of Platt’s trust account revealed ongoing shortages ranging from $34,000 on Jan. 31, 2005, to $43,552.78 on Dec. 31, 2006. At one point, Platt deposited $40,000 of his own money to cover his trust account shortages.
• Oscar Rivero of South Miami was suspended effective 30 days from the date of a July 21 court order. In May, Rivero pled guilty to felony first degree grand theft of property valued at more than $100,000. He was sentenced to 10 years in state prison followed by one year of probation.
• Joseph Raymond Rowe Jr. of Tampa was suspended for six months effective retroactive to May 26, 2008, following a July 3 court order. In 2003. Rowe was hired to represent a husband and wife in an immigration matter. During the representation, Rowe failed to keep his clients informed about their immigration cases, important hearings, and he failed to promptly respond to their requests for information. In 2006, the couple wrote Rowe a letter expressing their dissatisfaction with his representation. They detailed the harm they suffered due to his mishandling of the case, including denial of their asylum appeal, detention at an immigration facility, threat of immediate deportation, and revocation of work authorization. In several additional instances, Rowe was hired to represent clients, then failed to communicate and keep them informed about their cases.
• Scott Alan Salomon of Coral Springs was suspended until further order of the court following a June 27 court order. According to the petition for emergency suspension, Salomon has caused and continues to cause great public harm. Salomon personally and via the Internet, systematically solicited and/or accepted the representation of individuals in all regions of the United States. After collecting attorneys’ fees from clients, Salomon incompetently represented them, or neglected or abandoned them. Additionally, Salomon has been found in contempt of various courts and has been the subject of Bar complaints filed by five state and federal judges.
• Gail Turgel Scopinich of North Miami Beach was suspended for one year effective immediately, following a July 3, court order. In 2005, Scopinich represented a client in a foreclosure action. At the conclusion of the proceedings, after the money from the sale of the property was distributed, it was determined that the plaintiff’s attorney had been overpaid. The plaintiff’s attorney was ordered to return approximately $7,200 to Scopinich’s client. In August 2005, Scopinich received the overpayment, but she never cashed the checks, nor did she forward the money to her client. Numerous calls to Scopinich by her client went unanswered, and in November of 2006, the client filed a grievance. As a result of the Bar’s efforts, Scopinich’s client finally received her money in April 2007.
• Geoffrey Nels Fieger of Southfield, Mich. was reprimanded by publication following a June 12 court order. Fieger represented a client in a medical malpractice jury trial which resulted in a $15 million verdict and judgment. The Michigan Court of Appeals overturned the trial court’s judgment concluding the evidence was legally insufficient to support the verdict. Fieger addressed the court’s decision in two live comedy broadcasts of a show he hosted on CBS radio in 1999. In his remarks, he mentioned the judges by name and repeatedly addressed them in a derogatory manner. Fieger conditionally agreed to a reprimand in Michigan, reserving his right to pursue appeals based on the First Amendment. Additionally, an attorney in Fieger’s office used old letterhead for a contract for legal representation. It inaccurately stated that Fieger was a lawyer in good standing in Arizona. In another instance, Fieger filed an application with the Arizona State Bar, failing to cross out a pre-printed sentence that indicated he was “in good standing with all bars indicated,” when in fact he had been on administrative suspension since 1993, for failing to keep current with CLE requirements.
• Michael Christopher Grieco of Miami was to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, following a June 19 court order. Grieco pled guilty to charges stemming from November 2004 assault. The incident was investigated by the Miami Beach Police Department. Grieco, who was employed with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, and a friend of one of the alleged perpetrators, met with detectives assigned to the case. They thought Grieco was involved in the ongoing criminal investigation and gave him information they would not have otherwise provided had they known that Grieco was a friend. Grieco asked the detectives not to arrest the accused, because there was a lack of probable cause and he instructed the accused to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege. The accused was eventually arrested and charged with a crime. During the case, Grieco asked officials assigned to the matter to give special attention to the accused. He again misled others into believing that as an assistant state attorney, he would be representing the interests of the accused.
• Charles Jarrett Grimsley of North Miami Beach was to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, following a June 12 court order. Grimsley is general counsel for United Automobile Insurance Company. During a Daily Business Review interview in 2007, Grimsley said it appeared as if several judges in Miami-Dade County were being paid off; however, he had no evidence of any misconduct. Immediately after making the statement, Grimsley realized his remarks would violate one or more of the Rules of Professional Conduct, so he told the reporter he wanted to make a retraction. Grimsley believed that the reporter had agreed to the retraction, but the statement was subsequently published. Within a few days after the original article was published, Grimsley consented to another interview, and the retraction appeared in another issue of the Daily Business Review.
• Michele L. Rivera of Hialeah was to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, following a June 12 court order. In September 2007, Rivera began working as an associate attorney with a law firm. While employed, she operated her own law firm from her residence on her employer’s time and used some of her employer’s resources. Some of the clients that Rivera had represented through her own firm had conflicts of interest with the clients of her employer’s firm. No client was ever injured as a result of Rivera’s conduct, but upon discovery of her outside employment, Rivera was fired.