North Carolina Bar Actions
Recent disciplinary summaries on the web page of the North Carolina State Bar
David A. Perez of Thomasville was censured by the Grievance Committee. After a district court judge entered an ex parte order temporarily granting child custody to Perez’s ex-wife, Perez confronted the judge during a criminal session of court. His intemperate and inappropriate confrontation with the judge resulted in revocation of his courthouse security credentials. The motion to modify child custody was heard by a different judge. Perez repeatedly interrupted that hearing, talked over the judge, and continued to argue with the judge after she sustained opposing counsel’s objections. Perez filed a motion to disqualify the judge who heard the motion to modify. During the hearing on his motion to disqualify before a third judge, Perez interrupted the judge. While the motion to modify child custody was pending, Perez also filed a Judicial Standards Commission (JSC) complaint against the judge who heard the motion. Perez frequently referenced his JSC complaint during the litigation and inaccurately characterized an upcoming JSC meeting as a “hearing” even though JSC counsel had informed him that no hearing was taking place.
The sanction order is linked here.
Frederick Hadley of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, was reprimanded by the Grievance Committee. Hadley attempted to solicit professional employment by engaging in communications with a potential client via Facebook Messenger. Several of Hadley’s communications to the potential client contained material misrepresentations of fact and/or omitted facts necessary to make the communications as a whole not materially misleading.
Phillip Entzminger of Greenville engaged in undignified and discourteous conduct that was degrading to the court and made misrepresentations to the court. In 2021, the Pitt County Superior Court suspended Entzminger’s law license for two years. Entzminger was eligible to apply for a stay of the balance of the suspension after six months if he complied with enumerated conditions. After an August 2023 hearing, the court concluded that Entzminger had substantially complied with the conditions and entered an order staying the balance of the suspension.
David Shawn Clark of Hickory was disbarred by the DHC in 2013 for, among other things, having a sexual relationship with a client, filing a frivolous lawsuit alleging that the client’s true statements about their relationship were defamatory, coercing the client to sign a false affidavit denying the relationship, threatening to kill his employee if she told the truth about the relationship, and making false statements to the Grievance Committee. Clark was convicted of communicating threats and obstruction of justice in connection with this misconduct. Clark unsuccessfully petitioned for reinstatement in 2019. After a two-day hearing on his second petition for reinstatement, the DHC again recommended that Clark should not be reinstated. At its October meeting, the State Bar Council denied Clark’s petition for reinstatement.
(Mike Frisch)