Reinstatement Proposed After Bribery Conviction
An attorney who had been convicted of bribery should be reinstated to practice according to a recommendation of the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct.
The recommendation can be accessed here.
Cleveland.com reported on the criminal case
A Cleveland attorney’s bribery conviction for his role in offering two women tens of thousands of dollars to drop rape allegations was upheld by an appeals court Friday.
The appeals court found that although Marc Doumbas, 47, was not the one who made the offers to the women, as lead counsel on the case he knew about the offers and supported them.
The decision from the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals comes a month after the conviction of Timothy G. Marshall, another attorney involved with the case, was upheld.
Marshall’s nephew, Anthony O. Calabrese III, was also convicted in the case. Calabrese is serving nine years in prison on these charges and unrelated corruption charges. Marshall and Doumbas were each found guilty of bribery and sentenced to a year in prison in 2013 and fined $10,000.
According to court documents, Calabrese was representing Thomas Castro in business interests when Castro was accused of raping two women. Calabrese then brought Marshall and Doumbas in to handle the rape case.
During a lunch with one of the victim’s coworkers, Marshall offered the victim $54,000 plus an additional $6,000 for her attorney for her “pain and suffering.” During trial, Marshall said he meant the woman could receive that much in a potential civil settlement against Castro. But the woman construed the offer as a bribe and rejected it.
After Castro pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery, Marshall tried, via another attorney, to again offer the woman $50,000 to “say something nice to the judge” during the sentencing hearing. That message never reached the woman.
In rejecting Marshall’s appeal, the appellate court noted that although it’s not illegal to offer to represent someone in a civil suit, it is illegal to put conditions on settlement talks.
The second victim was initially offered $50,000 by Calabrese via her attorney in a potential civil settlement in exchange for writing a letter asking for treatment for Castro rather than jail time. According to the court of appeals decision, Calabrese eventually increased the offer amount to $60,000, and finally $90,000, but the woman rejected the offer.
Doumbas argued during his trial, and in his appeal, that he did not make any of the offers to the women. But the court of appeals found that because he was lead counsel on the rape case and was in constant communication with Marshall and Calabrese, the jury was justified in concluding that he was aware of the inappropriate offers. Several telephone calls also showed the attorneys had conversations among themselves around the time that the offers were made.
Assistant County Prosecutor Christopher Schroeder, who was part of the trial team and handled the appeal in the case, called the women courageous for refusing the bribes and instead reporting the offers to the police.
“As Judge Patricia Cosgrove said from the bench at the end of this trial, ‘Justice is not for sale in Cuyahoga County.’ Bribing a rape victim to pervert justice should be a death sentence for any attorney’s law license,” Schroeder said.
Doumbas’ law license was suspended in 2014 as a result of his felony conviction. The phone number listed for Doumbas was not connected.
In an unrelated matter, the Board favored a consent reprimand for one attorney and a one-year stayed suspension of another for improperly issuing “pre-suit subpoenas” in personal injury matters. (Mike Frisch)