Meals And Emails
The Illinois Administrator has alleged that an attorney engaged in two instances of misconduct.
One instance set forth led to a disorderly conduct conviction.
On August 10, 2013, Respondent went to Hy-Vee Grocery Store located at 1651 Midtown Road in Peru, Illinois.
Phillip Munoz (“Munoz”), the manager at Hy-Vee, observed Respondent loading groceries that he had not paid for from his grocery cart into wrinkled grocery bags that Respondent had brought with him to the store.
When Respondent noticed Munoz observing him place groceries into the bags, Respondent pushed the grocery cart away from himself and walked away from the cart.
Respondent then walked to the dining area in the back of Hy-Vee and ordered a dine-in meal that cost $6.44. Respondent informed the employee in the dining area that Respondent would pay for the meal when he exited the store.
While Respondent was eating the meal, Munoz confronted him about the grocery cart Respondent had loaded. Respondent told Munoz that there was a receipt for the groceries in one of the bags, and that he had purchased the groceries earlier that day.
Respondent’s statements to Munoz that he had purchased the groceries earlier that day, and that there was a receipt for the groceries in one of the bags, as described in paragraph five, above, were false because Respondent had not purchased the groceries in the cart that he had placed in the bags.
At the time that Respondent made the statements to Munoz described in paragraph five, above, Respondent knew that the statements were false because Respondent knew that he had not purchased the groceries and, as a result, that there was no receipt in the bags.
Respondent also informed Munoz that after he finished eating, he would get his cart and that he would be leaving the grocery store.
After Munoz walked away from Respondent, Respondent got up from the table, and he walked out of the store without paying for the meal he had eaten, leaving the grocery cart behind.
At no time did Munoz locate a receipt in the any of the bags of groceries in Respondent’s cart. The groceries in the cart had a value of approximately $207 without tax.
The other
At all times alleged in this complaint, Gerlyn Delaney (“Delaney”) was the president of a condominium association known as Birch Tree Manor #6 Association.
Prior to Respondent’s mother’s death in September 2010, Respondent’s mother resided in a condominium unit for which Birch Tree Manor #6 Association enforced the covenants, conditions, and restrictions.
In or about January 2012, while performing work on his mother’s condominium unit in preparation for its sale, Respondent discovered a leak in his mother’s unit that he attributed to an upstairs neighbor.
On January 14, 2012, Respondent sent an email to Delaney regarding the leak that stated:
Alfredo advised me he contacted you about the new leak at app 9:00 pm on 1.11.12 and that you were going to bed. Please contact these assholes upstairs and tell them if they want to avoid spending the next two years in court with me they need to do 2 things, pronto:
Fix the leaks. Our insurance company is already filing suit against them, so tell them to spend some money and fix the problem-maybe this time it is their water heater-whatever.
Control their kid, his [sic] was driving up and down the floor with his bike or whatever until I left for the airport at midnight. This is not a problem for us, but the new owner and they are going to come to blows, a prediction I guarantee. Ignorant pollacks.
On January 17, 2012, Delaney sent Respondent an email stating that it was “not the Board’s responsibility to intervene in disputes between owners” and suggesting that Respondent contact the owner of the unit he alleged was responsible for the leak.
On January 17, 2012 at 9:21 am, Respondent responded to Delaney’s email by stating “Is [sic] no problem, I will sue them and the Association and then you can see these assholes in person at the courthouse and you can tell them, look you 2 ignorant jerks, you are a pain in the Ass’n'[sic] ass and you are costing us money. Figure it out. That’s why they have courts. Adios.”
On January 17, 2012 at 9:25 am, Respondent sent another email to Delaney stating “[f]urther, if you really want me to solve this on my own, your asshole co-board member who you are protecting is going to get a crowbar over his head. Maybe in the legs because his head is too hard, he won’t get the point.”
Respondent’s statement that Delaney’s co-board member would get hit by a crowbar…was intended to intimidate Delaney and her co-board member.
It is alleged that this conduct violated Rules 4.4 and 8.4 (c). (Mike Frisch)