Lawyer texted he hoped attorney ‘dies of dirty Jew AIDS,’ complaint says. He’s suspended

Jacksonville criminal and family law attorney Paul Green began a 60-day suspension this weekend after snapping in a way usually associated with family law clients instead of attorneys, according to Florida Bar discipline documents.

Then again, Green’s conditional guilty plea for consent judgment does say he was going through his own divorce in January 2017 when he “sent a text message regarding his wife’s attorney that said, ‘Tell Dana Price I hope she dies of dirty Jew AIDS.’”

That’s one of the reasons Patricia Parker, the half of “Parker & Green, P.A.” that actually owned the firm, fired Green on Sept. 1, 2017 and changed the locks on the Perimeter Park Boulevard offices in Jacksonville.

Green’s guilty plea says Parker already warned Green about dressing and behaving unprofessionally after he missed client appointments, left on vacations without prior notice and became erratic in office attendance. A Bar complaint said he’d also withdrawn money from the firm’s operating account and put the business credit card to $40,000 of personal use. After firing Green, she found he’d put his parents phones and an iPad on the office phone plan. She turned off those phones.

Green reacted to his firing by changing the firm’s email account password, then used that to extort Parker into turning reconnecting the phones. But, the consent judgment says, he reneged on that deal when he rerouted firm’s emails to himself.

The Florida Coastal School of Law graduate then posted on the firm’s Facebook page that Parker had been hit with a Baker Act after having suicidal thoughts:

“Don’t worry, my e-mail still works and I am working with the Florida Bar to make sure she gets the help she needs. If you are a client, do not pay a bill until the Florida Bar decides what they will be doing with Ms. Parker.”

Parker was never Baker Act-ed.

Green repeated the suicide-Baker Act tale to firm client Karen Bates when they ran into each other on Sept. 17 at the Jacksonville Jaguars 36-17 loss to Tennessee.

The guilty plea for consent judgment says Green “further told Bates that if she would make a statement about Parker, he would finish her case for free.”

Two days later, he began texting with requests to discuss Bates’ case over drinks or “he would just come over and have wine” at her home.” Bates stopped responding to texts and filed a Bar complaint.

When Green saw her in January, he “approached her while she was working as a bartender, slammed his hand down on the bar and said, ‘Good luck with that complaint.’”

In addition to his 60-day suspension, Green must contact Pompano Beach-based Florida Lawyers Assistance for evaluation. The organization helps lawyers dealing with substance abuse or mental health problems.

This story was originally published October 21, 2018 at 2:05 PM.