Bond Return Money Allegedly Converted

The Illinois Administrator has charged two attorneys with misconduct as co-respondents.

Count One deals with the alleged mishandling of returned bond money in a attempted murder case.

In or around September, 2012, Respondent Gonzalez and Respondent Carroll and Lazar agreed that Respondents would represent Lazar in the defense of the charges referred to in paragraph one, above. Respondent Gonzalez, on behalf of herself and Respondent Carroll, agreed to accept $17,500 as the fee to represent Lazar to the conclusion of his criminal case, which was to be paid to them from the proceeds of any bond refunds relating to case number 11 CR 632.

On March 7, 2014, case number 11 CR 632 proceeded to jury trial, and at the conclusion of that trial Lazar, was convicted of attempt murder. At that time, the court entered an order revoking Lazar’s bond.

On May 9, 2014, Respondent Gonzalez, purportedly on behalf of Lazar, filed a petition requesting that the $35,000 bond that had been paid be refunded to Respondent Gonzalez. The Court ordered the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County to remit to Respondent Gonzalez any bond refund due Lazar.

Pursuant to Respondent Gonzalez and Respondent Carroll’s agreement with Lazar, referred to in paragraph three, above, Respondent Gonzalez and Respondent Carroll were entitled to only $17,500 of the bond refund as their fee, and were obligated to remit to Lazar and his family the balance of $14,000 of the bond refund.

On June 3, 2014, the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County wire-transferred $31,500 into Respondent Gonzalez’s client trust account at JP Morgan Chase Bank ending in the four digits 6170. The wire-transferred funds represented Cook County’s refund of Lazar’s bond, minus court fees.

On or around June 9, 2014, Respondent Gonzalez and Respondent Carroll agreed that they would split the proceeds of Lazar’s bond refund, with each of them receiving $15,750. Lazar did not participate in that conversation.

On June 9, 2014, Respondent Gonzalez caused $15,750 to be wired from her JP Chase client trust account ending in four digits 6170 into her JP Chase Bank account ending in the four digits 9091, which represented half of Lazar’s bond refund referred to in paragraph six, above.

Between July 14, 2014 and November 31, 2014, Respondent Gonzalez gave Respondent Carroll five checks that totaled $15,800, which represented half of the proceeds from Lazar’s bond money, as well as $50.00 from an unrelated client matter.

On several occasions between May 1, 2014 and November 12, 2015, Lazar’s relatives, including his brother Jessie Lazar, asked Respondent Gonzalez and Respondent Carroll to return the $14,000 to which Lazar was entitled from the bond.

As of November 12, 2015, the date that Panel C of the Commission Inquiry Board voted the filing of this complaint, Respondent Gonzalez and Respondent Carroll have refunded no portion of the $14,000 to which Lazar and his family were entitled. Respondents’ continued retention of those funds, and their use of those funds for their own purposes, constitutes a conversion of the funds.

Count Two charges Gonzalez alone with charging and retaining an unreasonable fee.

Count Three alleges a Rule 4.2 violation in contact with a client’s co-defendant on the part of Carroll.

On December 29, 2014, Assistant Public Defendant David McMahon, who had been assigned to represent McDonald, was at Division 10 of the Cook County Department of Corrections meeting with McDonald. A corrections officer interrupted that meeting to advise McMahon that another attorney was outside seeking to meet with McDonald.

Shortly thereafter, Respondent Carroll came into the room with Gonzalez.

At that time, McMahon spoke to Respondent Carroll and told him that McMahon was McDonald’s attorney and that Respondent Carroll and Gonzalez were not permitted to speak to McDonald.

On December 31, 2015, Respondent Carroll returned to the Department of Corrections and met with McDonald to discuss the charges that he and Murray were facing and to discuss a plea deal that had been offered to McDonald by the Office of the Cook County States Attorney.

At no time did Respondent Carroll obtain McMahon’s consent to communicate with McDonald regarding the charges pending against McDonald and Murray.

I have seen matters where attorneys who acted in concert were charged together. It is rarer to see (as here) unrelated misconduct charges as well. (Mike Frisch)