from staff
The Florida Bar also announced that the Florida Supreme Court in recent court orders disciplined 24 other attorneys, disbarring five, suspending 16 and placing one on probation. Some attorneys received more than one form of discipline. Four attorneys were reprimanded and three were ordered to pay restitution.
Jacksonville attorney Branch Lamar Winegeart has been suspended by the Florida Supreme Court for 91 days, effective 30 days from a June 5 court order.
In June 2005, Winegeart — who was admitted to the Bar in 1979 — was paid $1,500 to establish paternity and custody of the client’s minor daughter. After promising to file the petition within 20 days, Winegeart took almost two months to file it. The client received no information regarding case from Winegeart from August 2005 until March 2006, when he complained to The Florida Bar.
In May 2006, Winegeart set the custody and paternity matters for hearing at the end of September 2006. The first time the client learned of this was at the grievance committee hearing on his complaint on Sept. 14, 2006.
• Spencer Anthony Emison of Miami, disbarred effective immediately, following a May 15 court order. Emison neglected specific legal matters and abandoned his law practice without proper notice to his clients. In one case, Emison’s neglect led to a default judgment against a client for $372,585.60 and seizures of goods and equipment at his business. Emison failed to respond to Bar inquiries and he did not appear at the final hearing despite proper notice.
• Benjamin Hines Haire of Margate, disbarred for five years, effective immediately, following a June 5 court order. In two separate cases in 2006, Haire was hired to represent clients. He accepted fees for the representation and subsequently failed to communicate with them. When one client went to Haire’s office to speak with him, he learned that Haire had been evicted and left no forwarding address or telephone number. Haire also failed to respond to inquiries from The Florida Bar regarding the cases.
• Warren Thomas LaFray of Clearwater, disbarred effective immediately, following a May 8 court order. In four separate cases, LaFray accepted money to represent clients, but failed to communicate with them afterwards. LaFray has a prior disciplinary record. In January, he received a 36-month suspension and two years probation in another case.
• Samuel A. Malat of Haddon Heights, N.J., disbarred effective 30 days from a May 15 court order. In June 2007, Malat was disbarred by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Charges included misrepresentation and failure tocommunicate with a client, supervise a non-lawyer assistant and safeguard client funds. In prior disciplinary cases in New Jersey, Malat received two public reprimands in 2000, two consecutive three-month suspensions in 2003, and an admonishment and a suspension in 2006.
• Anthony Vincent Scalese of Pembroke Pines, disbarred for five years, effective immediately, following a June 5 court order. Scalese misappropriated and stole client funds, with an audit showing $94,000 missing.
• Vincent Paul Andreano of Coral Springs, suspended for one year, effective 30 days from a May 22 court order. Andreano plead guilty to several charges. As the closing attorney for a house purchased by a client in 2007, Andreano accepted closing fees to cover the transaction and collected money from the seller for costs related to the deed filing. When the client attempted to mortgage the house five months later, she learned that the sale was not recorded, the house was still in the seller’s name and there was a lien on the property. Andreano tried to correct his errors by forging the seller’s signature in a quit-claim deed filed with the court. He paid the client the fees in dispute in exchange for a letter withdrawing the Bar complaint. Andreano never responded to The Florida Bar’s request for a response to the allegations.
• Douglas Wayne Baker of Orlando, suspended for 91 days, effective 30 days from a May 12 court order. In April 2006, Baker received a public reprimand and was placed on probation for an indefinite period of time for issues related to substance abuse. The terms of his probation included following all recommendations by Florida Lawyers Assistance, Inc. and paying a registration fee of $250 and a probation monitoring fee of $100 per month to The Florida Bar. Baker failed to comply.
• Ann Bitterman of Coconut Grove, suspended for six months, effective immediately, following a May 22 court order. In September 2004, Bitterman was suspended for 91 days and placed on probation for three years. Bitterman violated the terms of her probation. She has six prior disciplines dating back to 1996.
• William Rudolph Boose III of West Palm Beach suspended for three years, effective retroactive to Aug. 3, 2007, following a May 15 court order. Boose plead guilty to a felony in July 2007. In January, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison, a $25,000 fine and one year of supervised release. Additionally, he has forfeited $400,000 as part of the plea agreement.
• Karen Marie Smith of Winter Park, suspended effective 30 days from a May 29 court order. Smith is charged with failure to comply with a Florida Bar subpoena to appear for deposition and produce files and trust account records.
• Stuart Leonard Stein of Santa Fe, N.M., suspended until further notice, following a May 23 court order. The Florida Bar petition for emergency suspension states that because of his recent disbarment in New Mexico and based on facts, Stein appears to be causing great public harm by repeated intentional dishonest misconduct.
• Joseph J. Weisenfeld of Miami, suspended until further notice, following a June 3 court order. The Florida Bar petition for emergency suspension states that Weisenfeld appears to be causing great public harm. A Bar audit provides convincing evidence that Weisenfeld misappropriated client funds.
• Craig Francis Hall of Gainesville, suspended indefinitely, effective 30 days from a May 21 court order. Hall was found guilty of possession of child pornography, a federal felony.
• Caswall Adington Hart of Miami, suspended indefinitely, effective immediately, following a May 20 court order. A Florida Bar audit shows that Hart has misappropriated thousands of dollars in client funds.
• David Franklin King of Fort Lauderdale, suspended for one year, effective 30 days from a May 8 court order. He will also pay restitution of $825 to one client. King was hired to represent a client and after accepting a fee for his services, he took little or no action on the case. King refused to respond to the client’s numerous attempts to contact him and he failed to return her file or the fee he collected from her. King also failed to respond to The Florida Bar’s request for information regarding the case and he neglected to appear at a final Bar hearing.
• Cedric Eugene Lewis of Winter Haven, suspended for 10 days, effective 30 days from a June 5 court order. Lewis is also ordered to attend a Trust Accounting Workshop. In March 2003, Lewis was paid approximately $3,800 to represent a client. After filing the lawsuit on his client’s behalf in August 2003, the matter remained inactive until 2005 when he was contacted by the court. The case was subsequently dismissed because the court had not received required information from Lewis. In another case, Lewis failed to properly supervise an employee in the handling of trust accounts. Between September 2006 and April 2007, Lewis’ former employee converted $25,000 from the law firm’s escrow accounts. A Florida Bar audit revealed that the majority of the stolen funds belonged to Lewis and no clients were harmed by the conversion.
• Samuel Raymond Mallard of Lakeland, suspended for nine months, effective 30 days from a May 8 court order. He will also pay restitution totaling $4,299 to three clients. Upon applying for reinstatement, Mallard must provide proof that he is compliant with his physician’s treatment plan and that he has been found fit to resume the practice of law.
• James Robert Mann of Bal Harbour, suspended for 10 days, effective 30 days from a June 5 court order. He will also pay restitution totaling $1,861.02 to two clients. Mann pled guilty to charges surrounding his representation of clients in a music copyright infringement claim in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The matter was settled prior to trial and Mann’s clients were to receive $30,000 in the settlement. Mann drafted a settlement statement detailing costs and fees of $18,076.54. An investigation by the Bar concluded that Mann overcharged his clients an additional $1,861.02 in court costs and court reporter fees.
• Cecile Angela Martin of Miami, suspended for 90 days, effective July 28, and further placed on probation for two years, effective immediately, following a May 8 court order. Martin plead guilty to failure to provide competent representation to clients and failure to respond in writing to official inquiries by The Florida Bar. In one case, Martin was retained by a couple to handle an estate matter. They became dissatisfied with her services and lack of communication and subsequently filed a complaint against Martin with the Bar. In another instance, Martin was appointed by the court to represent a client in a guardianship case. The court ordered Martin to produce certain documents, which she did not do.
• Ana-Maria Carnesoltas of St. Petersburg, to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, following a May 15 court order. She is further ordered to attend The Florida Bar’s anger management workshop. Carnesoltas plead guilty to charges that she referred to a witness in a court hearing as “a liar.” When questioned about it by the presiding judge, she denied making the comment. Carnesoltas later admitted to it.
• Donald Robert Goodwin of Fort Lauderdale, to receive a public reprimand from the Florida Bar’s Board of Governors following a May 15 court order. Goodwin is further ordered to attend The Florida Bar’s Professionalism Workshop. Goodwin was found guilty of intentionally failing to appear in court, leaving clients unrepresented at hearings and causing case delays. Goodwin neglected to meet or speak with another client during the entire period he represented him.
• Darryl Gene Mitchell of Boynton Beach, to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, following a May 8 court order. Mitchell was paid $2,500 to represent a client in post dissolution proceedings against her former husband. After accepting the case, Mitchell took little or no action. He has since repaid the client.
• Matthew James Wells of Brandon, to receive a public reprimand from The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors, following a May 8 court order. Wells is further ordered to attend Ethics School. In one case, Wells was hired to represent a client in a bankruptcy proceeding. He began representation, but eventually stopped prosecuting the claim. In another case, Wells never communicated directly with the client after he was retained to obtain post-conviction relief. When the appeal was denied, Wells did not directly inform the client, nor did he discuss available options.