OHIO Top court suspends attorney's license

The lawyer's wife said Mogul has battled cancer since 1997.
COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a Youngstown attorney because he failed to submit to a mental health evaluation.
The court took the action this week against Michael Mogul of Liberty after he didn't appear for a hearing May 9 in which he was to discuss his failure to attend the evaluation ordered by the Supreme Court's Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline.
Mogul's wife, Sherrie, said Mogul, 57, has cancer and was unable to attend the hearing because of the illness. He is heavily sedated, she said said, and neither she nor Michael knew about the hearing.
Sherrie Mogul said Michael has not practiced law for anyone but himself since he was diagnosed with the disease in 1997 and had to have his nose surgically removed in 1998 because of a tumor. She said he has been a lawyer since 1975.
"Right now he just wants to recover from cancer."
Sherrie Mogul said her husband intends to comply with the court's requests as soon as he is healthy enough to do so.
The court ruled earlier this week that Mogul's license be suspended unless and until he complies with the order and submits to the evaluation. The court ordered that he immediately stop practicing law of any kind.
The board ordered the evaluation during the investigation of a complaint filed by Judge Thomas Swift of Trumbull County Probate Court over an October 2002 event.
Board documents allege Mogul opened a confidential, sealed expert physician's evaluation that was part of the court's file on the guardianship of Mogul's mother, Rose.
"Mogul's response to the complaint and conversations he had with disciplinary personnel and probate court staffers led the board to believe he was mentally ill," the documents continued.
According to the documents, Mogul made inappropriate and disrespectful comments during the investigation, including telling one person he had no nose and telling another she "was a loose cannonball, obtained ecstasy by her work, and that she found the work orgasmic."
Sherrie Mogul said her husband did act out in Judge Swift's courtroom in a case involving the estate of his deceased mother, Rose, and tore up documents in front of Judge Swift. She said he did that out of frustration because Judge Swift had awarded attorney fees to an attorney representing Michael Mogul's half brother.