Shoplifting Attorney Disbarred

From the September 2012 edition of the California Bar Journal:

[An attorney] hasbeen convicted three times of petty theft and related crimes. Inaddition, he testified during trial that since the last of the threeconvictions, he was convicted four more times for petty theft. The crimesinvolve moral turpitude.

The threeconvictions were the result of shoplifting from Target, CVS and Costco stores.As part of a plea agreement, [he] was to participate in the Orange CountySuperior Court’s Recovery Court Program. However, he violated the program rulesby discontinuing his medication for more than five months; as a result he wasunable to control his conduct and again began to shoplift.

Inrecommending [his] disbarment, State Bar Court Judge Donald Miles said his“sustained history of stealing represents conduct and ethics antithetical tothe values required and expected of an attorney.” Although [he] says he ison the road to recovery, Miles wrote, “To protect the profession, he must berequired to show that he has lived an exemplary life for a sustained period oftime without the constraints of the oversight by his probation officer and thecriminal courts.”

(Mike Frisch)