An incarcerated Kendall attorney requests disbarment, but insists he didn’t rape anyone
Despite what an arrest warrant describes as a text-message conversation containing an apology for rape, a jury conviction on one count of rape and an appeals court upholding the verdict, Miami area lawyer David Carnright maintains his innocence.
But Carnright gave up the fight to maintain his law career, requesting disciplinary revocation from his current residence, the Florida Department of Corrections’ Desoto Correctional Institution. The state Supreme Court granted it Jan. 9 and Carnright is disbarred. He can apply for readmission to the Florida Bar on Jan. 9, 2030.
Disciplinary revocation means the attorney accepts what the state Supreme Court says is “tantamount to disbarment,” usually with permission to reapply after five years. In return, the professional discipline case against the attorney goes away.
Attorneys reach for disciplinary revocation to save time or effort. Sometimes, they’re so close to the end of their career, there’s little point to fighting a case. Other times, the case clearly will end in a long suspension or disbarment that the attorney decides to rush to that end.
Disciplinary revocation has no effect, however, on any criminal or civil matters. So Carnright, 39, will still serve the seven-year sentence he received after a Miami-Dade court jury convicted him in April 2022 on one of the three counts of sexual battery with no injury. His scheduled release date, according to the Department of Corrections website, is April 2, 2029.
“(I have) retained Mr. Michael Ufferman to continue representing (me) in (my) criminal proceeding,” Carnright’s disciplinary revocation petition says. He thinks he has “substantial grounds for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim and, ultimately, a new trial to prove (my) innocence once and for all.”
Court documents say Daniel Forman and Ashley Forman handled the defense of Carnright, whose official Bar address is in Coral Gables but whose office was in West Kendall. He’d been a member of the Bar since 2010.
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What happened in the car outside the bar
The woman who Carnright raped told police he approached her as she smoked a cigarette outside Sandbar Sports Grill, 3064 Grand Ave., in Coconut Grove on Mar. 2, 2018. A “friendly conversation” led to the two of them in Carnright’s white BMW, where, she said, he forced intercourse and other sexual acts on her after offering her cocaine.
“The victim stated that she begged [Carnright] to stop and attempted several times to get out of the vehicle, but [Carnright] would not allow her to get out of the vehicle,” an arrest warrant said. “When [Carnright] stopped, the victim was able to get out of the vehicle and walk back to Sandbar Sports Grill.”
The arrest warrant said that even six months later, a Sandbar bartender recalled the woman coming back into the bar, asking for water and saying she’d been raped by a man in a white car. The bartender told police the woman showed her Carnright’s name on her phone and the woman recognized it because he was a Sandbar regular.
Also, the arrest warrant said, the bartender said she’d run into Carnright in Wynwood, where he asked if she’d heard anything about an incident involving him and the woman. The bartender said the woman stated Carnright had raped her. Carnright denied that, saying they’d just “hung out” and he gave her money.
The woman’s cellphone, however, arrest records said, contained a text exchange between the woman and Carnright from after their time in the car. The woman electronically said, “U were too pushy for me” and “I didn’t want to do that and I kept saying it.”
The warrant said Carnright replied, “I know im soooo sprry ugh,” “Plz dont be mad,” and kept apologizing to the woman.
Carnright’s defense argued the woman made up the rape allegation to blackmail Carnright for drugs and cash.
“The State proffered evidence that Carnright made several PayPal payments to the victim shortly after the incident, and that the victim promptly returned most of these payments except for $100 of an initial $300 payment,” the Third District Court of Appeal said.
According to the warrant, on Dec. 6, 2018, he told investigators he’d get in contact with them when he returned to town five days later. But on Dec. 13, repeated calls went to voicemail. Investigators got the arrest warrant on Dec. 14, 2018.
Carnright was arrested Dec. 20, 2018, at a Miami-Dade house. Arrest paperwork says he “attempted to leave to Zurich.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 2:54 PM.
