Sex with a defendant among ethical violations by attorneys from Miami to Palm Beach
Misappropriating funds, inappropriate sex, ghosting clients and the Bar and killing someone with a Mercedes account for most of what put seven South Floridians on the Florida Bar’s monthly report of attorneys disciplined by the state Supreme Court.
In alphabetical order:
Brandon Barker, West Palm Beach
In February, the West Palm Beach attorney (admitted in 2012) got suspended after not showing up for a trial, not showing up at the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s Professionalism Panel to talk about not showing up, then not responding when the Bar wanted to talk about Barker not showing up.
Barker still hasn’t told the Bar via affidavit that he told all clients, opposing counsel and tribunals that he was suspended. Also, he’s “failed to remove all indicia of attorney status.”
This is called contempt. Barker, already suspended, began a 91-day suspension on Oct. 19. If he continues to stay dark, he could be disbarred.
Stephen Butter, Aventura
Butter’s Florida Bar profile now says “deceased.” The 81-year-old had been a lawyer in Florida as long as the Mustang has been a car (admitted in 1965).
Before dying, he had got two discipline matters pending: the first involved allegations of misappropriated (translation: stealing) client funds and the other has allegations of neglecting, abandoning and ignoring a client who had paid for Butter’s services.
Butter applied for disciplinary revocation — in effect, disbarred for five years, in exchange for the discipline cases disappearing — and received it on Oct. 14.
Marcos Antonio Gonzalez-Balboa, Miami Lakes
Police say Marcos Gonzalez-Balboa (admitted in 1979) bought 19 drinks over six hours at Bulla Gastrobar in Coral Gables before stumbling to his Mercedes C250 on Dec. 6, 2017, the last day of 26-year-old Tatum Holloway’s life.
Holloway was crossing Fairway Drive near the intersection of Miami Lakes Drive when Gonzalez-Balboa lost control of his Mercedes and knocked her 51 feet from the point of impact to the side of the road next to a storm drain.
Gonzalez-Balboa, 68, received his criminal consequences in August when he was sentenced to probation for vehicular homicide and tampering with physical evidence. That decade of probation ends Aug. 25, 2031.
The professional consequence he requested, disciplinary revocation, ends Nov. 13, 2026.
Craig Jenni, Boca Raton
An insurance company hired Jenni to investigate the May 2018 diving accident death of Navy officer Brian Bugge in Hawaii. Jenni’s guilty plea says he met with Bugge’s wife, Ashley Bugge, “and discussed the accident in detail” on May 27, 2018.
“Ms. Bugge was in a highly distraught state during the May 27, 2018 meeting with [Jenni],” his guilty plea says. “Ms. Bugge was desperate to learn any information which explained the cause of her husband’s death.”
Jenni told her he’d tell her anything he found, “even if it was adverse to the interests of the insurance company.”
The problem: Jenni didn’t make sure the widow Bugge knew he was an attorney; who he was working for; that his employer’s interests might be directly averse to hers; or that she might want to get her own attorney.
When Ashley Bugge found out Jenni was an attorney, she cut off Jenni.
Jenni’s 45-day suspension starts Nov. 13 and that suspension will be followed by a two-year probation.
Stefan McHardy, Pembroke Pines
McHardy (admitted to the Bar in 2011) paid attention to his online presence, but paid no mind to his presence at disciplinary proceedings.
After winning a landlord-tenant case, according to the referee’s report, McHardy’s client asked him to file to get attorney’s fees and costs from the losing side. McHardy took seven months to do so, then didn’t pay the $50 filing fee in time. The case was closed without even a hearing on the attorney’s fees and costs.
After the client filed a grievance with the Florida Bar, McHardy ignored the Bar aside from a phone call from a Bar counsel’s secretary on Jan. 27, 2020. He confirmed his address and email, then proceeded to ignore the Bar and the state Supreme Court. That got McHardy suspended.
But, the referee noted, he still held himself out as a lawyer on social media and dispensed legal advice.
“Respondent has willfully and continually flouted the suspension order entered against him,” the referee wrote.
Now, McHardy is disbarred. But if you go to listinglawyers.com, as of Thursday afternoon, it still offers a “chat with Stefan McHardy Esq.”
Juan Mercado Jr., Miami
Mercado’s guilty plea for consent judgment says when he started a sexual relationship with a woman in 2018, she didn’t know he was a prosecutor in the state attorney’s office in Charlotte County and he didn’t know she was being prosecuted on a domestic battery charge.
Mercado (admitted in 2017) admits he found out she was a defendant “shortly thereafter,” but denied the woman’s accusation that he said he’d help with her case if she kept having sex with him. Though Mercado was arrested and charged with one count of bribery, a special prosecutor found the evidence didn’t support that charge.
“Although no criminal wrongdoing was found in this matter, [Mercado] nevertheless acknowledges that his actions were improper and created a conflict of interest about which he had a duty to inform both his office and the woman’s counsel,” his guilty plea says.
He also admits that while the sexual relationship continued, “he accessed the woman’s file in his office and provided confidential information from that file to her on at least one occasion.”
Her criminal case was dismissed. Mercado’s six-month suspension starts Nov. 13.
Michael Wolowitz, Hialeah
Wolowitz (admitted in 2012) was arrested on Feb. 6, 2019, and charged with LSD trafficking, cocaine possession with intent to sell or distribute, six counts of controlled substance possession, four of which were for intent to sell or distribute, armed amphetamine trafficking, misdemeanor drug paraphernalia possession and misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Prosecutors knocked out all but three of the felonies, kept the misdemeanors and let Wolowitz go into the Drug Court program.
Though he completed the pretrial intervention program on Feb. 6, Wolowitz entered a guilty plea for consent judgment to violating attorney misconduct rules.
His 15-month suspension is ruled to have started Feb. 6.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 8:06 AM.
