Accusations of stealing $65,000 and ignoring a grievance get Broward lawyers suspended
The Florida Bar’s monthly list of attorneys disciplined by the state Supreme Court numbers includes only two attorneys from South Florida.
In alphabetical order:
Timmy Cox Sr., Plantation
Timmy Cox (admitted to the Florida Bar 2014) began a one-year suspension last Christmas Day for, among other things, not telling the biological mother in an adoption case that the document she was signing was giving up her parental rights. The mother thought she was just letting her child go home with Cox’s client.
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Between the time that suspension came down from the state Supreme Court and the time it went into effect, the Florida Bar tried to reach Cox about a complaint from Jennifer Medley.
The Bar’s petition for contempt says the Bar sent a letter via U.S. Mail to Cox on Dec. 6 requesting response by Dec. 21; a Jan. 28 email to the address Cox had given the Bar and an alternate email address requesting response in 10 days; and a hand-delivered letter to Cox’s Bar address with another request to answer in 10 days.
Cox didn’t respond and has been found in contempt. Because he’s already suspended, the suspension for this is immediate and will remain in effect until Cox answers the complaint.
James Wilkie, Pompano Beach
The Florida Bar’s petition for emergency suspension says as SE Oceanside was evicting James Wilkie (admitted in 2013) from his home and evicting The Wilkie Law Group from its commercial home, Wilkie admitted on March 22 to bouncing a couple of checks to his landlord.
“Notably, the checks were written from his trust account and deposited into the court registry for his personal residence,” the petition says.
That’s a no-no. An attorney’s trust account is for client or third party funds, not money used for paying residential rent, office expenses or drinks.
Then, the petition says, Wilkie told the court that “he deposited a cashier’s check into the court registry for the outstanding amount due in that matter. Despite that respresentation to the court, a cashier’s check was never deposited into the court registry for the outstanding funds in the residential eviction.”
Wilkie bounced a couple of trust account checks for the space involved in the commercial eviction. JP Morgan Chase notified the Florida Bar about the bounced trust account checks.
On May 2, the Bar subpoenaed Wilkie’s trust account records for Aug. 1, 2021, through April 30, 2022, and wanted them by June 1. The petition says Wilkie sent records a day late and several records short.
In part of his correspondence with the Bar, Wilkie said he’s always stated that, “’I am in constant balance with my (interest or dividend bearing trust account) and strive to keep my balance at $0.00. ... It’s paramount to me that I keep my account at $0.00.’ ”
Also, he’s quoted as writing: “I understand this comes with the territory in being a lawyer; however, I would never use someone else’s money, violate my ethical standards and infringe on my own policy of keeping my trust account at $0.00 (to the best of my ability).”
Wilkie said no client monies were were misappropriated or co-mingled. He said, however, a lawyer can put some of his own money into the trust account to shore up a shortage and “I erred in not replenishing the account in time and notifying the Bar’s lawyer regulations department immediately of my error.”
Florida Bar auditor and certified public accountant Carl Totaro examined Wilkie’s trust account records. The account received a $100,000 check from Geico Insurance Co. for client M.B.’s settlement on Aug. 30, 2021. The petition says all that money was out of the trust account by Nov. 30, but there were no payments to any of M.B.’s medical service providers, who were owed $74,134.
On May 27, the other law firm representing M.B., Salpeter Gitkin, sent Wilkie an email reminding him he was responsible for paying M.B.’s medical expenses, which a medical provider said hadn’t been paid yet.
The petition twice described the way Wilkie moved money in and out of the trust account as “similar to a Ponzi scheme.”
“The evidence is clear and convincing that [Wilkie] misappropriated at least $65,000 of the $74,134 client funds payable to medical providers,” the petition said. “[Wilkie] removed those trust funds and, thereafter utilized those funds for his own personal benefit and for matters unrelated to [M.B.].”
The complaint says Wilkie used that money to pay his past due rent in the commercial eviction.
Totaro also saw a $20,000 check for B.C. from Broadspire hit Wilkie’s trust account on April 8. In the two weeks after April 11, the petition says, nine transfers took that $20,000 from Wilkie’s trust account to his operating account.
“No disbursements from the trust account were paid to [B.C.] or paid to any third parties and/or medical providers on behalf of [B.C.] during the period of April 8, 2022 through April 29, 2022,” the petition said.
As for a closing statement that would detail where the money went, the petition said, during a June 16 phone call with Totaro, Wilkie “advised there was no closing statement for [B.C.] and that [B.C.] is his best friend.”
The state Supreme Court granted the request for emergency suspension.
