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Overwhelmed lawyer blew deadline and faked email to cover it up, disbarment order says

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 20:29:03 +0000

Ethics

Overwhelmed lawyer blew deadline and faked email to cover it up, disbarment order says

March 6, 2024, 3:17 pm CST

A lawyer who became overwhelmed with her caseload has been disbarred for faking an email to make it appear that her personal injury client fired her before she missed the deadline to file his lawsuit. (Image from Shutterstock)

The Georgia Supreme Court disbarred lawyer Andrea Jo Anne David-Vega in a March 5 decision.

Law360 has coverage, while the Legal Profession Blog published opinion highlights.

David-Vega submitted the fake email in her disciplinary case and in an October 2020 malpractice suit filed against her by the client. The fake email differed from other emails sent by the client, the Georgia Supreme Court said. It was in a different font and format; and it appeared to use perfect diction, capitalization and punctuation. She also faked a text and submitted it in the malpractice suit.

The ethics allegations against David-Vega were deemed to be admitted because she failed to file a timely answer to the ethics complaint by the State Bar of Georgia. She was, however, allowed to submit evidence in a hearing on aggravating and mitigating circumstances.

In that testimony, David-Vega admitted fabricating the email and text to make it appear that her client, Fadi L. Milan, had fired her before the statute of limitations expired.

Testifying in mitigation, David-Vega’s counselor said David-Vega had expanded her caseload in 2016 by becoming a special assistant attorney general representing the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services. As a result, she acquired 200 cases in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and 150 cases in a neighboring county. Yet she continued managing her own general practice.

“David-Vega became overwhelmed with her caseload,” the Georgia Supreme Court said, “but continued to take cases because she ‘did not know how to say no’ and felt unable to ask for help.”

David-Vega also helped with care for her mother and stepfather, who had become ill. She eventually “reached a point where she completely unplugged,” the counselor testified.

David-Vega had no prior discipline and expressed remorse for her actions. She also had a stellar representation among judges whom she appeared before.

Testifying in aggravation, Milan said he suffered permanent injuries to his eye, neck, head, back and brain in the auto accident for which he sought to file suit. He had debt collectors calling and couldn’t access his medical records that were being held by David-Vega.

Milan had retained David-Vega in August 2016, although there was no written contingency agreement, according to the Georgia Supreme Court’s opinion. She contacted the liability insurer for Milan but eventually cut off communication with the insurer.

David-Vega also failed to respond to Milan’s questions, even though he called her office over 65 times to ask about the status of his case between January 2019 and February 2020, the opinion said. He also continued to text and email her through April 2020.

Milan notified David-Vega that he was firing her in May 2020. The deadline for filing suit was August 2018. David-Vega falsely claimed that Milan fired her in March 2018, the opinion said.

Milan’s lawyer in the malpractice suit testified that David-Vega had lied, had failed to cooperate in the malpractice case, and had drawn out settlement negotiations for two years.

A special master had recommended a two-year suspension.

David-Vega did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment. The ABA was unable to leave a voicemail message for David-Vega at the number listed by the state bar because the mailbox was full.

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Proud Boy faked drug overdose to avoid Jan. 6 sentence: Feds

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 01:02:46 +0000

Christopher Worrell (via FBI court filings).

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to increase the pending prison sentence for a Florida man who fled ahead of his sentencing hearing for felony convictions stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Christopher Worrell went missing in August days before he was supposed to report to court in Washington, D.C., for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, had convicted Worrell in May of seven felonies, including obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, civil disorder, and assaulting officers using a dangerous weapon.

Worrell was finally caught weeks later, in late September — and according to a memo filed by federal prosecutors on Tuesday, he pretended to overdose on drugs in an attempt to further delay facing his fate.

“He apparently had no intention of ever turning himself in,” the DOJ’s supplemental sentencing memorandum says. “Worrell was recaptured, however, when he attempted to covertly return to his residence. Worrell then faked a drug overdose prior to his arrest, and maintained that lie during a five-day hospital stay, wasting the time and money of both medical staff and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which provided deputies to watch Worrell 24/7 in a non-secure hospital location and was left to foot the bill for Worrell’s unnecessary medical care.”

Prosecutors wanted to “put these new, aggravating facts” before Lamberth, who the government said should “increase the sentence [the judge] was previously going to impose on Worrell to account for this new misconduct.”

Prosecutors say that on Aug. 14, 2023, Worrell “cut off his GPS ankle monitor in a Walmart parking lot and fled his residence.” Prosecutors say he left behind a note “making clear he had fled.”

Investigators staked out Worrell’s home, where the defendant “attempted to covertly return” on Sept. 28. That’s when the FBI made its move — and discovered Worrell inside, “seemingly unresponsive, with an opened bottle of opioid prescription medication in his hand.”

Agents performed “what they thought were lifesaving procedures” on Worrell and got him to the hospital, the memo says.

It was all for naught.

“This was, the government later learned, all a ruse — Worrell pretended to have a medical emergency as a ‘delay tactic’ to stall the government’s investigation,” prosecutors said. It seemed to have worked, at least temporarily: according to the government, Worrell spent five days in the hospital before being cleared by doctors who believed he had overdosed on opioids. Local sheriff’s deputies kept constant watch, paying thousands in overtime.

“The entire time, Worrell knew he was fine,” prosecutors wrote.

Worrell himself appeared to acknowledge as much. Prosecutors attached an email exchange between Worrell and someone identified only as “B.S.” in which Worrell seems to acknowledge that the “overdose” wasn’t real.

“I need to know the truth bro did you try to kill your self I hope you didn’t I need the truth,” wrote B.S. in an email.

“I did not!!” Worrell replied moments later. “Will explain more when we talk. I already told you some of it[.]”

“OK I believe you,” B.S. wrote back.

“I have never and will never lie to you,” Worrell insisted in his reply. “It was a stupid delay tactic. Will tell you more when we talk.”

Worrell’s alleged actions may stretch the patience of Lamberth, who previously had extended sympathy to Worrell over ongoing health issues: In October 2021, Lamberth found two D.C. jail officials in contempt of court for failing to comply with an order to provide notes about Worrell’s medical care while in detention. Worrell suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer that generally develops in the lymph nodes. With appropriate treatment, it is curable in many cases. Lamberth had allowed Worrell to remain on pretrial release and pursue medical treatment.

Indeed, the DOJ noted in its initial sentencing memo that it was seeking a low-end sentence “only because of Worrell’s ongoing medical conditions.” In that August sentencing memo filed before Worrell’s disappearance, prosecutors had requested a sentence of 168 months — the shortest term possible out of an anticipated 168-210 month guidelines range.

Now, it seems, the government has run out of sympathy.

“Worrell has now admitted faking a drug overdose for strategic reasons,” the memo says. “And as the government has documented at length elsewhere, some of Worrell’s claims as to his medical treatment or conditions have been unsubstantiated by, or directly refuted by, medical records from at least a half-dozen different medical providers.”

Prosecutors remind Lamberth that Worrell “repeatedly lied under oath” at trial, and provided what the judge called “the most ridiculous explanation” the judge “had ever heard in [its] life” in an attempt to excuse his 2022 bond violation.

“At this point, Worrell’s claims of past medical mistreatment while in custody should be viewed as suspect,” prosecutors concluded.

In addition, Worrell’s flight, and subsequent fake overdose, “demonstrates contempt for this judicial proceeding and an attempt by Worrell to evade all consequences for his misconduct on January 6, 2021 and his perjury during trial.” Worrell remains “unremorseful,” prosecutors say, and his actions resulted in an “enormous waste of government resources.”

The DOJ lawyers do not specify how much time they now believe Worrell should spend behind bars; the statutory maximum he could face for the obstruction charge is 20 years in prison.

Read the government’s supplemental sentencing memorandum here.

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