Targeted Lies Draw Informal Admonition

The District of Columbia Office of Bar Counsel (“OBC”) has informally admonished an attorney for dishonesty

This matter was docketed for investigation based upon the ethical complaint filed against you by your former employer, C.C.F, Esquire (Ms. F). Based upon our investigation of this matter, we find that your conduct violates of Rule 8.4(c) of the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct (the “Rules”). Ms. F hired you in October 2010 as a paralegal in her solo elder law practice.

You passed the District of Columbia Bar examination in October 2011, and Ms. F hired you as a Staff Attorney.

In December 2010, Ms. F was appointed the guardian and conservator for VFE (“Ms. E”). As the guardian/conservator, Ms. F was responsible for, inter alia, handling Ms. E” s financial affairs. Ms. E lived at her home with her adult son, VFE (“V”), and her grandson.

In or about November 2011, Ms. F requested that you purchase clothing and shoes for Ms. E. Thereafter, you purchased clothing and shoes at a Target Department Store (“Target”) on behalf of Ms. E, totaling $287.12. Ms. F delivered the items to Ms. E on or about November 14, 2011. Thereafter, V returned four illfitting items of clothing and a pair of shoes. Ms. F asked you to return those items to Target.

In the spring of 2013, V accused Ms. F of theft, alleging that she had not delivered $287 .22 of clothing to Ms. E.  Ms. F sent V a copy of the receipts for the items. Thereafter, V requested that Ms. F provide him with a copy of the receipt for the returned items. Ms. F then asked you about the matter, and you told her that you had forgotten to return the items in November 2011, which were still in a bag in a filing cabinet drawer. Ms. F then asked you to return the items.

Thereafter, you falsely reported to Ms. F that you had returned the items. In fact, because the purchase had taken place two years earlier, Target would not accept the untimely return of the items. Consequently, you purchased a gift card in the amount of the previously purchased items. You gave Ms. F the gift card, with a value in an amount equal to the previously purchased items. Because V had requested the receipt for the allegedly returned items, Ms. F again asked you to contact Target and to obtain a receipt. In response, you falsely told Ms. F that you had contacted Target, but that it could not generate a new receipt. Ms. F repeated your false version of events to V.

In or about August 2014, V filed with the court a petition to remove Ms. F as the guardian/conservator for Ms. E. Among other things, V alleged that Ms. F had failed to provide him a receipt for the return of the previously purchased items. On August 19, 2013, Ms. F filed with the court a response to V’s petition. Based upon your version of events, Ms. F represented to the court that “[t]hose five items were returned for a gift card in the amount of the items.”

In light of V’s continuing pressure for, inter alia, a copy of the receipt, Ms. F called Target in an attempt to get a receipt for the allegedly returned items.

In response to her inquiry, Target researched the issue and advised her that there had been no return of the previously purchased items, and that the gift card had been purchased rather than exchanged for the previously purchased items.

Ms. F confronted you about her communications with Target, and you immediately acknowledged to her that you had not returned the clothes. Instead, you told her, that you had purchased the gift card with your own funds and that you had donated the previously purchased clothing to a charity. In a subsequent pleading filed with the court, Ms. F disclosed your false statements regarding the true disposition of the allegedly returned items.

OBC concluded

In this matter, you falsely reported to Ms. F that you had returned to Target the previously purchased items that V had rejected. You also falsely reported to Ms. F that you had lost the receipt for the returned items and that Target could not reproduce the receipt. Such false statements were dishonest.

(Mike Frisch)