Judge Permanently Disbarred

The Ohio Supreme Court permanently disbarred a court of common pleas judge for misconduct both as a judge and in private practice. The misconduct is described on the court’s web page as follows:

In today’s decision, the Court unanimously affirmed the disciplinaryboard’s findings that Hoskins violated multiple provisions of the Codeof Judicial Conduct while serving on the bench, including deliberatelyconcealing his personal ownership interest in a building in which acourt-related office contracted to lease space. The Court also foundthat Hoskins committed multiple rule violations by entering intodiscussions with a convicted felon, David Bliss, in which Hoskinssuggested that Bliss’ purchase of the above-mentioned building at agreatly inflated price would be a legal way for Bliss to utilize moneyhe claimed to have obtained years earlier through criminal activity andto have concealed from authorities while in prison. The Court notedthat, because Bliss was secretly cooperating with a law enforcement“sting” operation at the time, the case record included tape recordingsof conversations in which Hoskins gave Bliss detailed instructions onhow to “launder” the alleged concealed funds from his earlier crimesthrough a stock transfer in which he would acquire ownership ofHoskins’ building.

With regard to the offenses alleged duringhis years in private practice, the Court adopted the board’s findingsthat Hoskins engaged in a pattern of misconduct involving fraud,deceit, dishonesty or misrepresentation and committed other ethicaloffenses by repeatedly making improper and unauthorized withdrawals ofmoney for his own use from the estates of several relatives over whoseassets he exercised fiduciary control as executor or administrator. Theboard also found that Hoskins failed to timely disburse estate assetsto the rightful beneficiaries, failed to keep required recordsaccounting for his withdrawals and disbursements from the estates,charged excessive legal fees, and filed incomplete, inaccurate andmisleading reports with the probate court that concealed his improperdiversion of funds from the estates to his own use.

Inrejecting Hoskins’ claim that permanent disbarment was disproportionateto his offenses, particularly in light of the fact that he wasacquitted of all criminal charges brought against him, the Court notedthat he had engaged in a pattern of misconduct stretching over a periodof almost 10 years and that his actions involved multiple ruleviolations, reflected dishonest and selfish motives, and had causedserious financial harm to his private clients and “incalculable harm tothe public perception of the judiciary and attorneys.”

(Mike Frisch)