Attorney disbarred for allegedly stealing from minor's bank account

WSMV Channel 4
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - An attorney with a troubled history has now had his law license taken away.

The Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility has disbarred Thomas H. McKinnie Jr.
The board said he stole nearly $200,000 from a child's trust fund.

McKinnie once had law practices in Williamson, Rutherford and Davidson counties, and gave legal advice on his own YouTube channel.

But one family who trusted McKinnie with their estate planning didn't fare so well.

According to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, in 2012, McKinnie set up a bank account for the estate of Dorothy Hunt of Franklin.

Over a two-year-period, the board found, McKinnie emptied the account. The board said McKinnie "wrote checks to himself from the trust account in the total amount of $196,459."

The account had been set up for a relative named Carrie Smithson. She was just a child at the time.

The money was supposed to help pay for her education, but when it came time to pay her tuition bill, there was no money left and she had to withdraw from school.

The board took away McKinnie's law license on June 30, saying the "brazen theft demonstrates a dishonest and selfish motive."

They took the strongest possible action – disbarment.

They cited McKinnie's prior problems. He's had his law license suspended three times since 2011 – twice for financial irregularities involving client's money.

In 2011, McKinnie was suspended for two years for improperly moving trust fund money to his own account.

In 2013, he was suspended again for two years for trust fund irregularities.

In 2015, McKinnie was once again suspended, this time for a year, for misleading a client.

Channel 4 was unable to reach McKinnie; his law office phone number is disconnected.

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Attorney disbarred for allegedly stealing from minor's bank account