IN: Justices impose 3-year suspension on lawyer who took guardianship funds

A Warrick County attorney who was already suspended from the practice of law for failure to comply with court orders has been disciplined with an additional three-year suspension after he converted an elderly woman’s guardianship funds to himself.

As a court-appointed guardian of an incapacitated 88-year-old woman living in a Warrick County nursing home, Gene Emmons, a Booneville attorney, became a signatory on the woman’s PTSB and PNC bank accounts. The PTSB account was an attorney fiduciary account subject to overdraft reporting to the Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.

Without authorization, Emmons wrote three checks to himself totaling $20,000 from the PTSB account, noting in the subject line that they checks were for “legal fees.” The court ordered Emmons to prepare a biennial accounting of his guardianship over the woman in 2015, which he failed to do, prompting his removal as her guardian. Emmons was then ordered to file a final accounting, which he also did not complete.

Emmons then failed to appear at a court-ordered hearing for his failure to comply with the accountings, and he did not respond to an investigation into his actions by the Disciplinary Commission. Subsequent show cause proceedings resulted in Emmons’ indefinite suspension due to his noncooperation in 2016 in Matter of Emmons, 52 N.E.3d 797 (Ind. 2016).

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Justices impose 3-year suspension on lawyer who took guardianship funds