A Florida lawyer said his client deserved his baseless child sex abuse comments about her
Not only did an Orlando divorce attorney opine in legal documents — without any evidence — that his client probably was sexually abused as a child and suffers from low self-esteem, he told the judge in his discipline case he was in the right by doing so.
Because, Luis Basagoitia testified, she asked for it by how she behaved toward him.
Florida 19th Judicial Circuit Judge Robert Belanger included this among the reasons he recommended a 60-day suspension for Basagoita. The Supreme Court of Florida accepted that recommendation, and Basagoita’s suspension starts Saturday. They also accepted Belanger’s recommendation that the lawyer spend some time at Ethics School and a Stress Management Workshop before Sept. 9.
Before this, Basagoitia maintained a clean Bar discipline record since being admitted in 1989.
Divorced from the law?
While some lawyers infuriate opposing counsel or their clients by strict adherence to the law, Basagoitia wound up in front of the referee by pretty much ignoring the law.
When Basagoitia’s client was asked to sign a document certifying as accurate her gross income information on the July 2019 financial affidavit before a March 2020 mediation, she knew recent employment made that gross income information inaccurate. Basagoitia, the referee’s report said, “told her to sign and submit the form with the incorrect income number anyway because ‘these figures are for mediation only.’”
He’d already refused to file a notice of appearance as her attorney. She’d represented herself, pro se, until August 2019, when she hired Basagoitia. The report says Basagoitia testified to the referee he doesn’t file notices of appearance because “they can subject you to personal jurisdiction.”
This created a two-pronged problem. Legally, Basagoitia was in violation of the Rule of Judicial Administration 2.505(e)(3). That’s required, since 2012, that an attorney representing someone who has already appeared pro se must file a notice of appearance with the court and all parties.
Logistically, this meant that the client kept getting court documents and court orders instead of Basagoitia. And, the referee’s report said, “complained that ... his client, should have forwarded the court orders to him that she received. [Basagoitia] failed to timely object to an order of referral to the general magistrate because he was not served with the court order.”
When the ex-husband-to-be emailed Basagoitia on Aug. 13, 2020, to say he received that order of referral, the referee’s report says, Basagoitia emailed back, “[i]n my opinion you can ignore this document because I will also receive it and take whatever action is necessary. The only thing left is to get your divorce and that has nothing to do with magistrates.”
But, Basagoitia was telling his client that her ex didn’t want to divorce her.
READ MORE: Mishandling money, abusing court got South Florida lawyers in trouble
Attractive comment
Before the mediation, the referee’s report said, Basagoitia didn’t answer his client’s questions about it. He didn’t prepare her for it beyond telling her to trust him.
After the mediation ended in an impasse, Basagoitia’s client believed he not only didn’t prepare her, he didn’t prepare himself.
“When (the client) stepped into the hallway with [Basagoitia] because she was upset, [Basagoitia] told her that her husband did not want the divorce because she was “attractive,”” the referee’s report said.
The report quotes Basagoitia’s response to the client’s Bar complaint including: “It is my opinion that she probably was abused when she was a child probably of a sexual nature since she is attractive” and she has “extremely low self-esteem... [a]bused people are like that since they are used to being dominated.””
The client not only said she never been touched in such a manner, but she’d never talked about her childhood with Basagoitia and “testified in a deposition that she’d grown up in a loving family.” She called Basagoitia’s comments “false and extremely upsetting.”
Apparently, that’s what Basagoitia wanted.
The referee’s report said he “admitted that he had no evidence to support this characterization,” but “he was justified in defending himself this way because she had called him negligent and a “scammer” in her Bar complaint.”
Basagoitia’s sworn statement defended the sex abuse opining on the grounds that she called him “negligent” and a “scammer” in her Bar complaint: “If she wants to play ball at the big games, she better be ready, because, you know, she’s going to have it coming. And, I don’t regret one iota of it.”
Also in his sworn statement, the referee’s report said, Basagoitia “testified that (his client) was disrespectful to him while he represented her and he “had to put her in her place.””
Basagoitia’s place, for 60 days starting Saturday, will be on suspension.
This story was originally published April 3, 2023 at 3:23 PM.
