Thefts From Big Box Stores Leads To Conviction, Suspension

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to give a convicted attorney credit for time served on an interim suspension and imposed a prospective two-year suspension with sixmonths stayed on conditions.

The crimes

A 41-count indictment issued in August 2011 alleged that Haynes, her husband, and ten other people had engaged in a pattern of stealing merchandise from big-box retailers in Summit County, returning the stolen merchandise to obtain cash refunds in the form of merchandise cards, using a cell phone registered to Haynes to check balances on the merchandise cards, and using an eBay account registered to Haynes to sell the merchandise cards. Haynes reported her indictment to relator. She admits that she returned merchandise that she knew or should have known had been stolen by one or more of the other parties charged in the indictment to retailers and that in exchange for the returned merchandise she received merchandise cards. She pleaded guilty to a single felony count of receiving stolen property in April 2013, for which she was sentenced to 24 months of community control and ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution. Shortly after entering her guilty plea, she was terminated from her employment.

While the conduct was dishonest

The parties agreed that the relevant mitigating factors include the absence of a prior disciplinary record (other than the registration violation), Haynes’s timely good faith effort to make restitution or rectify the consequences of her misconduct, her full and free disclosure and cooperative attitude toward the disciplinary proceedings, the imposition of criminal penalties for her conduct, and her participation in an interim rehabilitation program administered by the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program (“OLAP”) since March 2012.

Two justices dissented and would grant credit for the time served.

Newsnet5 Cleveland reported on the criminal case. (Mike Frisch)