Disbarred Edmonton lawyer faces possible jail time

Shawn Beaver will be sentenced before Christmas for contempt of court

 

by Janice Johnston

Shawn Beaver is expected to be sentenced for contempt of court before Christmas. (J. Penner Photo Co.)

The Law Society of Alberta wants disbarred Edmonton lawyer Shawn Beaver sent to jail for one year for what it calls "egregious and flagrant" misconduct.

Beaver's lawyer has asked Court of Queen's Bench Associate Chief Justice John Rooke to consider community service and impose a fine instead.

Rooke will issue his written decision on sentencing before Christmas.

Beaver was disbarred in February 2017 after the Law Society of Alberta found he had stolen from clients' trust accounts. While the case was still being considered, the court issued an injunction prohibiting Beaver from doing any legal work.

In May 2020, Rooke determined Beaver had deliberately violated the injunction by using another lawyer as a shield to secretly practise law. He found Beaver guilty of contempt of court.

In a written sentencing submission to the court, the law society's Sharon Heine argued that Beaver also provided covert legal services to two of his friends and once even went to court to support a friend who was criminally charged.

Heine also noted that just a week after Beaver was found guilty of contempt in May 2020, he posted an ad on Kijiji titled, "Legal instruction from the best."

After the law society raised concerns, Beaver deleted the ad.

"To this date, Beaver refuses to accept that he is not entitled to practise law," Heine said in the submission. "The suggestion that financial desperation justifies a lack of compliance with the injunction order is a theme repeated by Beaver throughout these proceedings."

The law society argued that Beaver only apologized to the court after he was found guilty of contempt. It calls Beaver's apology "parsed and qualified,"noting he avoided making any specific admissions of wrongdoing or taking personal responsibility for his actions.

"It is the LSA's position that Beaver's apology is too little, too late," the court document states.

'Incarceration is a last resort'

A written sentencing submission from Beaver's lawyer Simon Renouf suggests Beaver had a turning point in late August 2020 when the law society was insisting on a jail term.

"Incarceration is a last resort," Renouf wrote. "He has made promises for the future and should be given that opportunity. He is of good character as shown by the evidence."

He argued that Beaver's apology was complete and straightforward, along with his promise to no longer practise law.

To support his sentencing submissions, Renouf presented eight letters written by Beaver's recent paralegal students at CDI College in Edmonton.

"We like Shawn and his teaching style. He knows the law and has a passion for it. He taught us to respect the law and its terms," one letter states.

Two of Beaver's adult daughters also submitted affidavits that were entered as exhibits, but they were not allowed to testify or be cross-examined at the sentencing hearing.

Erin Beaver defends her father, but not his past actions.

My father has made a tragic mistake

- Erin Beaver

Associate Chief Justice John Rooke
 will release his sentencing decision
 later this month. (Alberta Law Society)

"My father made a tragic mistake in a portion of his life and career and he never sugar-coated it to me," Erin Beaver wrote in her sworn affidavit.

"He was left completely alone, and had no one, an empty wallet and a damaged reputation. The image in my head is a man being repeatedly kicked to the ground after a mistake he had made, given no ability to come out strong."

She begged the judge not to imprison her father.

"Leave him where he is needed with his family," she wrote. "Leave him where he belongs to work, in order to repay his debts. Putting him away will only delay this."

Those concerns were echoed by Beaver's lawyer who suggested that sending him to jail would lead to financial collapse for the family and the removal of lawful employment.

Beaver did not respond to a request from CBC for an interview.

He will find out in the next two weeks if he can spend Christmas with his family or in jail.

Full Article & Source:

Disbarred Edmonton lawyer faces possible jail time

Baton Rouge lawyer permanently disbarred; must repay clients nearly $27,000

BY JOE GYAN JR.

A Baton Rouge lawyer has been permanently disbarred by the Louisiana Supreme Court for myriad instances of professional misconduct, including being held in contempt of court for failing to appear for scheduled hearings.

J. Renee Martin also was ordered by the high court to pay nearly $27,000 in restitution to 10 clients.

Martin, who was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 2005 but had been under suspension since early 2017, is now "permanently prohibited from being readmitted to the practice of law in this state," the Supreme Court wrote in an order dated last week.

Martin, 39, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A hearing committee had recommended to the high court that Martin be permanently disbarred because her offenses were so egregious.

"We agree," the justices said. "(Martin) has failed to account for or refund approximately $27,000 in client funds. In one instance, she settled a personal injury claim without her client's consent. She then failed to remit the funds owed to the client from the settlement and took an unauthorized fee from the settlement for work she was not contracted to do."

The Supreme Court also pointed out that Martin continued to practice law after the court placed her on interim suspension in February 2017.

The Supreme Court noted that she failed to answer the formal charges filed against her last summer by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, an arm of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. She also submitted nothing for the hearing committee's consideration, the court added.

One of the formal charges stated that Martin failed to appear twice in February 2016 on behalf of a client in the 19th Judicial District Court, prompting a judge to issue a bench warrant for her. She then gave "unsatisfactory answers" about the missed court dates at a March 2016 contempt hearing, the Supreme Court said.

The judge fined Martin $100 to recall the warrant, found her in contempt of court for failing to appear, fined her $500 for that failure and sentenced her to 30 days in jail, which was suspended upon payment of the $500 fine.

Then in September 2016, 15th Judicial District Judge Jules Edwards III filed a complaint with the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel regarding Martin's "repeated failures" to appear on behalf of a criminal client.

Her areas of law practice included family law, divorce, estate and power of attorney. She also handled personal injury cases.

Full Article & Source: 
Baton Rouge lawyer permanently disbarred; must repay clients nearly $27,000

Disgraced ex-guardian Rebecca Fierle in contempt of court for failing to give documents, replacement says

Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for him.

By Jeff Weiner

Though former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle resigned amid scandal months ago, her legal squabbles continue with some of those appointed to replace her.

In the latest salvo, attorneys for guardian Kelly Pitman are asking Orange County Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe to hold Fierle in contempt of court, after they say she failed to hand over documents regarding at least two of her former wards.

Pitman, through attorneys David A. Yergey Jr. and David A. Yergey III, first filed a broad request Sept. 5, demanding that Fierle hand over contracts, correspondence, reports, financial statements, calendars and other materials related to her handling of the wards.

Months — and a court order — later, she has not complied, they say.

“The refusal of Fierle to comply with the Court’s order was willful and improper, and such unwarranted refusal has necessitated the filing of this Motion,” Pitman’s latest filing says. It asks for Fierle to be ruled in contempt and ordered to pay Pitman’s expenses and attorney’s fees.

In an emailed statement, Fierle’s attorney, Harry T. Hackney, said Fierle “is, in fact, producing voluminous records voluntarily pursuant to an agreed order.”

“Mr. Yergey was advised of this and filed the motion immediately anyway,” he said.

Fierle was a prolific guardian, appointed in hundreds of cases across more than a dozen counties, before a scandal erupted concerning her handling of 75-year-old ward Steven Stryker, who died in a Tampa hospital while under a “do not resuscitate” order Fierle signed against his wishes.

She has since acknowledged routinely filing DNRs for wards. Probes have also found evidence of double-billing, conflicts of interest and cases in which she acted outside her legal authority.

Fierle is being investigated criminally by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the office of Attorney General Ashley Moody, but has not been charged with any crimes.

The controversy, as well as a series of Orlando Sentinel special reports exposing issues in the state’s troubled and underfunded guardianship system, have prompted calls for reform. Legislation to require court approval for DNRs and close statutory loopholes was filed by lawmakers this week; Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking to nearly double the budget of the state’s oversight agency; and AdventHealth, which had paid Fierle nearly $4 million over a decade, is overhauling its use of guardians.

Fierle resigned as a professional guardian July 25 in a letter to the state’s Department of Elder Affairs. She had stepped down from all Orange County cases weeks earlier.

Full Article & Source:
Disgraced ex-guardian Rebecca Fierle in contempt of court for failing to give documents, replacement says

Judge threatens to hold AdventHealth in contempt over records on embattled guardian Rebecca Fierle

By Monivette Cordeiro

A judge has threatened to hold AdventHealth officials in contempt of court, writing that the Central Florida hospital company failed to hand over records related to its financial relationship with Rebecca Fierle, the former professional guardian currently under criminal investigation.

Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe ordered AdventHealth on July 10 to produce documents involving Fierle. During a hearing the next day, an attorney for the hospital system told the judge that AdventHealth paid the court-appointed guardian to provide services for roughly 50 patients — an arrangement which was not disclosed to the court.

In an order dated Tuesday, Thorpe wrote that AdventHealth had only “partially complied” with her order to produce the documents, which were to be given to Wynter A. Solomon-Cuthbert, a court monitor assigned to investigate the disgraced guardian.

The hospital company still had not given Solomon-Cuthbert all checks and invoices for payments made to Fierle and her various business entities, Thorpe’s order said. AdventHealth also failed to provide a list “of all patients receiving services from Rebecca Fierle, referred to by AdventHealth as 'permanent’ or 'forever’ patients,” the judge wrote.

“You are hereby ordered, within 5 days of entry [of] this order, to submit the listed documents ... or to show cause why you should not be held in contempt for failing to do so,” Thorpe wrote, emphasizing the contempt threat in bold type.

Court records show Thorpe set a hearing earlier in August to let AdventHealth explain why the company should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with her order from July. A transcript of that hearing, which was not publicly noticed in advance, was not immediately available.

AdventHealth spokesman Bryan Malenius told the Orlando Sentinel the company had complied with Thorpe’s orders.

“We have responded to all requests from the court and are in the process of re-sending and providing additional documents the court has requested,” Malenius said.

He said the hospital company uses the term “forever patients” to describe “patients who have no family or friends willing to assume guardianship, and as an absolute last resort, a professional guardian may be appointed by the court.”

During the July 11 hearing, AdventHealth attorney Troy A. Kishbaugh told Thorpe the company thought it should not be responsible for paying private guardians, who are typically compensated for their time from their clients’ funds or by the state.

“You shouldn’t be,” Thorpe told him, according to the transcript. “All payments to guardians come through the court based on the statutes. ... I haven’t seen your payments come through to me.”

“They don’t,” Kishbaugh responded.

“That’s a problem, sir,” the judge said.

A review by the Orange County Comptroller’s office of 30 of Fierle’s cases found the guardian appeared to have entered into a contract with AdventHealth without telling the judge — a potential violation of Florida law, which says guardians may not “have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect, in any business transaction or activity with the guardianship.”

The death of one of Fierle’s clients, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, sparked a scandal that has embroiled Florida’s guardianship program and led to increased scrutiny over how guardians are appointed to make legal, financial and medical decisions for minors and incapacitated adults, known as wards.

Stryker died at at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving procedures because of a “do not resuscitate” order Fierle filed against his wishes, according to an investigation by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller.

After details of the Stryker case came to light, Thorpe sought Fierle’s removal from all 95 cases the guardian then had pending in Orange County. Eighteen of those cases involved wards who were AdventHealth patients when petitions to place them under guardianship were filed, more than any other care provider, according to data compiled by the Sentinel.

Fierle, who is not currently facing charges and has resigned from all cases statewide, is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a separate Medicaid fraud probe by the state’s Office of Attorney General. Earlier this month, authorities found the cremated remains of nine people when they searched the Orlando office for Fierle’s business, Geriatric Management.

Full Article & Source:
Judge threatens to hold AdventHealth in contempt over records on embattled guardian Rebecca Fierle

PART 4: LAWYERS CHARGED WITH FLEECING ELDER MARVIN SIEGEL OUT OF MILLIONS…NOW SEEK TO GET HIS DAUGHTER DISBARRED

 PART 4

by Lonnie Brennan

“High-powered lawyers” is an understatement to describe the North Shore powerhouse of attorneys who have been accused of isolating and medicating retired Attorney Marvin H. Siegel of Boxford, Mass. in order to liquidate his estimated $7 million estate.

BACKGROUND SUMMARY

Mr. Siegel has been held as a virtual hostage in his own home, with 24/7 round-the-clock “guards” (medical providers), who, according to one of his daughters, have isolated the 89-year old from close family members for the past five years. Mr. Siegel was placed on lock-down through a court decree of unlimited powers granted to Attorney Brian T. Cuffe, courtesy of Judge Susan D. Ricci (who wrote the order while the presiding judge was on vacation in Italy).

Mr. Siegel’s nightmare is complicated, but highlights are contained in Parts 1, 2, and 3 in prior issues of The Boston Broadside.  In summary, he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility (Whittier Pavilion in Haverhill, Mass.) by a doctor at Beverly Hospital, following a questionable ambulance transport from his house to the hospital. His evaluation was for potential Alzheimer’s onset. It has been charged that Brian Nagle of BNY Mellon, which held the bulk of Mr. Siegel’s multi-million dollar estate, dispatched Atty. Edward Tarlow and his associate Catherine Watson to the psychiatric facility where, according to Mr. Siegel’s attorney daughter, Lisa Siegel Belanger, Mr. Siegel s was administered drugs and lied to, and unwittingly signed away years of careful, deliberate family and estate planning documentation.

Mr. Siegel later experienced a second involuntary commitment at Merrimack Valley Hospital half-a-year later, the daughter charges, after the newly signed documents were used by Attorney Cuffe to further drug and control the senior. The details of that commitment are noted in prior issues of this newspaper. Nightmare is a gentle term to describe the “legal kidnapping,” medication, isolation, and subsequent liquidation of Mr. Siegel’s life-estate.

KAZAROSIAN STRIKES BACK AGAINST DAUGHTER

High-profile Attorney Marsha V. Kazarosian, along with Attorneys Cuffe, James E. Feld, and Thomas J. Barbar, have collectively filed a complaint to the Office of the Bar Counsel, Board of Bar Overseers (B.B.O.) of the Supreme Judicial Court in Boston for “professional misconduct” on the part of daughter Lisa Siegel Belanger, who has fought the high-financed lawyers tooth and nail for five years.

In their complaint (B.B.O. File NO. C2-12-002476408 – Marsha V. Kazarosian, et. al.), the lawyers who have controlled Mr. Siegel’s estate – and have drained an estimated $1 million from the estate over each of the past five years (according to court filings) – submitted 101 pages of counter-claims against Lisa Siegel Belanger, inclusive of exhibits which admonish Lisa for speaking to the press. The exhibits include several pages of Boston Broadside coverage of the case.

The complaint states that The Boston Broadside was provided with lies by the daughter, but in 101 pages, not one lie is exposed, nor even mentioned. We’ve reviewed the case files (thousands of pages, and exhibits, as well as video and audio tapes and eagerly await clarification in the future on what appear to be a broad-brush tarnishing of Lisa Siegel Belanger for daring to go up against such a powerhouse team of attorneys. Most striking is that Lisa’s exposure throughout this process of multiple other seniors who have suffered similar actions by some of these same lawyers, is not addressed.

Since the Boston Broadside’s articles have been published in more than 38,000 printed newspapers, as well as online, other media have picked up the story. The question which is repeatedly asked is how Kazarosian and her fellow “untouchables” could have gained so much control over Mr. Siegel.
And the recent B.B.O. complaint, when shared with others brings more questions. In the complaint, Kazarosian charges Mr. Siegel’s daughter with exploiting her own father, for spending a fraction ($85,000) of his multi-million dollar holdings. Apparently, most of those funds were actually spent defending Mr. Siegel against the “untouchables.” So, how is this “exploitation” by Lisa, we are asked? And how can Kazarosian keep a straight face saying that the untouchables need to spend millions to defend themselves against Lisa?

The untouchables’ complaint against Lisa also spills much ink over a series of contempt-of-court charges made against Lisa. The bulk of the charges were made because Lisa visited her father in the hospital, where he was believed critically ill from complications of various drugs. Lisa took too long to respond to the first contempt-of-court charge, and was subsequently fined multiple times (and re-charged with multiple contempt-of-court charges) until she made payments to certain untouchables to cover their legal fees in prosecuting her for visiting her father, against their wishes. Seriously, truth is stranger than fiction.

Counter-complaint filed by Attorneys Kazarosian, Cuffe, Feld, and Barbar against Marvin Siegel’s daughter Lisa, claiming she is the reason they have had to deplete millions from his estate to fight her – to protect Marvin Siegel from her exploitation.

A further question we’ve been asked is: If Lisa had been guilty of misspending any money, why was she not charged or has had any complaint lodged against her for five years, until she recently went public to the press?

Most curiously, we’ve been asked: Why now? Why are these four, high-powered attorneys who took control of Mr. Siegel’s estate, now, after five years, striking out against Mr. Siegel’s daughter, Lisa? Is it because Kazarosian’s, Cuffe’s, Feld’s and other’s actions have “seen the light of day” in a newspaper?

Of interest, Kazarosian has taken out a full-page color advertisement in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, a private publication made available to lawyers, stating (in all capital letters): “LAWYERS TRUST MARSHA KAZAROSIAN AND WALTER COSTELLO TO LEAD THEIR BAR ASSOCIATIONS. CLIENTS TRUST THEM TO OBTAIN THE BEST RESULTS.” The ad is estimated to cost in excess of $4,500 according to the publication’s online posted rates. In the ad, Kazarosian is featured in a low-cut top, with a smiling, suited Costello.

Kazarosian is the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Bar Association. In addition to a long list of service in various lawyer associations, in January 2016 Kazarosian was appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker to the Supreme Judicial Court Nominating Commission. She had previously served six years with the B.B.O.

Notes: Lisa Siegel Belanger had previously filed multiple submissions to the B.B.O. (approximately a dozen, she stated) against Kazarosian and her group during the past four years. Each has been outright rejected, stating that no investigation could take place as it was “pending litigation.” In contrast, Lisa is now forced to reply to the one Kazarosian complaint – the one complaint that seeks to strip Lisa from her livelihood –  her ability to work as a lawyer.

Lisa filed a complaint of racketeering against Kazarosian, et. al., but the courts refused to consider it, despite multiple attempts (and it has been revealed that more than one court judge is closely tied with Lisa’s opponents!).

The lawyers who control Mr. Siegel’s estate continue to try to get him vacated from his $900,000+ Boxford home. And Lisa continues to fight them every step of the way, appeal after appeal. But the case has never been discussed in court – always rejected in the lower courts on technicalities of paperwork filings, never on the merits of connected lawyers isolating, medicating, and liquidating a defenseless senior.

Where from Here?

With the involvement of such high-powered lawyers and the seeming acquiescence of the judicial system, several people have suggested that perhaps it is time for the U.S. Attorney’s Office to take a look at this entire case. Similar cases of elder mistreatment have also recently come to our attention which we are in the process of investigating. Stay tuned.

(NOTE: Kazarosian either intentionaly lied or else has serious comprehension problems: she misrepresented The Boston Broadside’s article regarding the cataloguing and control of the contents of Mr. Siegel’s safety deposit box in her complaint to the B.B.O.)

Full Article & Source:
PART 4: LAWYERS CHARGED WITH FLEECING ELDER MARVIN SIEGEL OUT OF MILLIONS…NOW SEEK TO GET HIS DAUGHTER DISBARRED