Tuesday, March 18, 2014
By Ed Runyan
GIRARD
The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered an “interim default suspension” of the law license of Robert L. Johnson, 18-year former prosecutor in Girard Municipal Court, ordering him to “cease and desist from the practice of law in any form.”
The court’s March 4 order says Johnson shall notify all clients in pending matters within 30 days of his suspension and disqualification to act as an attorney.
Girard Law Director Brian Kren appointed Atty. Michael E. Bloom to replace Johnson as prosecutor in Girard Municipal Court effective Feb. 1. Kren said Johnson’s disciplinary matter was not public until it was announced in March, so he had no way of knowing about it until after he made the change to Bloom.
“I just felt a change was needed,” Kren said of hiring Bloom.
Johnson could not be reached at the Seneca Street office in Warren he has used in recent years, or at a phone number he has used for court cases.
Johnson, who was first licensed to practice law in 1989, also served as prosecutor for Hubbard but can’t do that right now, so Atty. Ursula P. Shugart is handling Hubbard cases, Hubbard Law Director Mark A. Villano said.
There are seven Hubbard cases pending in Girard Muncipal Court, and they had to be continued last week to allow Shugart time to start handling them, Villano said, adding that he wishes Johnson well and hopes he’ll be able to resume practicing law soon.
The suspension is called default because Johnson failed to respond to a complaint the Supreme Court filed against him and mailed to his home on Ohio Avenue in McDonald in November. The mail came back as undelivered.
One possible reason is that a judge in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court issued a judgment entry foreclosing on the home in September.
The Supreme Court complaint resulting in the license suspension was investigated by Atty. D. Chris Cook of Lorain, representing the Lorain County Bar Association.
A Supreme Court-certified complaint Cook filed says a Supreme Court Disciplinary Counsel representative and Johnson corresponded five to six times each starting in April 2012, when the court received a notice indicating that Johnson’s attorney trust account with Chase Bank had become overdrawn as a result of a $5,000 payment to Atty. Michael J. Godles of Lorain. That payment was followed by payments to Godles of $28,500 and $4,000.
Attorneys use trust accounts to hold client funds. Such accounts are subject to Ohio laws.
The Ohio Supreme Court had suspended Godles’ law license in July 2011 for failing to pay costs associated with a public reprimand Godles received from the Supreme Court in 2010 in a legal matter he handled, according to Ohio Supreme Court documents.
Godles’ license remains suspended, according to the Ohio Supreme Court website, with the most recent documents listed in the court’s online database indicating that collection of the fees was turned over to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in October 2012.
The phone number for Godles’ former office in Elyria is no longer in service.
The Lorain County Bar Association already was investigating Godles at the time Johnson’s trust-account issue surfaced because of Godles’ involvement in a civil action involving Alice Stevanus of Lorain County.
Johnson also was involved in that case, so the Lorain County Bar Association took over the investigation of Johnson, according to court documents.
In April 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court forwarded two more grievances to the Lorain County bar against Johnson regarding Ralph Conti of Lorain County and Tammy Heslop of Trumbull County. The bar association attorney then sent Johnson three more letters last summer but got no reply.
In the Stevanus matter, Godles was retained to represent the woman in April 2011, three months before his license was suspended, the bar association said.
Godles at some point that spring contacted Johnson to work on the case with him, and the two settled the matter out of court. But Johnson did not get written permission from the client to split fees with Godles and didn’t get permission to share representation with Godles, Supreme Court documents say.
The Lorain County Bar Association found it “highly problematic” that a settlement sheet in the Stevanus matter showed there was supposed to be a “balance of funds” of $36,000 in Johnson’s trust account in the Stevanus matter, but the money apparently was not there, Supreme Court documents say.
In the Conti matter, the client paid $3,100 to Johnson to represent him in several matters in June 2011, then didn’t answer numerous phone calls or supply documents Johnson was supposed to provide, the Supreme Court said.
In the Heslop matter, Johnson was hired in November 2011 to represent a woman in a foreclosure, but he filed only one motion in the case, and a judge approved the foreclosure Feb. 14, 2013, the Supreme Court said.
Johnson also failed to carry professional liability insurance or to inform Heslop that he didn’t have the insurance, the Supreme Court said.
Johnson never had any previous disciplinary action taken against him by the Ohio Supreme Court during his career, the filing says.
In July, the Warren income-tax department filed 13 misdemeanor charges against Johnson, saying he had not withheld city income taxes from his employees or filed tax returns dating back to 2007, nor as recently as the third quarter of 2012.