A Florida public defender’s client said he gave her a choice: prison or sex with him
.jpg "Archive")
A woman represented by a Madison County public defender said he asked her for sex with the caveat that if she declined his offer, she’d be headed for prison.
That public defender is no longer a licensed attorney — by his own choice.
Madison County assistant public defender Thomas Stone denied he extorted sex from the woman, who is 39 years his junior, but admitted they had a sexual relationship and that he gave her money. A referee found the 74-year-old Stone violated three different ethics rules in his relationship with the woman.
But, before sanctions could be decided for Stone, he applied for disciplinary revocation with leave to seek readmission after five years. As the state Supreme Court ruling said, “Disciplinary revocation is tantamount to disbarment.”
Disciplinary revocation makes the professional discipline case go away, but does nothing to any criminal or civil cases arising from the attorney’s actions. Stone can apply for readmission to the Bar, which he was admitted to in 1976, on Oct. 29, 2027.
Information, sex and money
Stone’s client was charged in 2015 with two counts of burglary and one count of grand theft from $300 to $5,000. On July 6, 2016, she entered into a Substantial Assistance Agreement with the state attorney’s office, essentially agreeing to be a confidential informant in exchange for a five-year probation.
In Stone’s response letter to the Bar complaint, he said she was no longer his client after her July 6, 2016, sentencing. But then he was appointed to represent her again after she was arrested Feb. 7, 2018, on a violation of probation (VOP) warrant. She allegedly failed a urine-based drug test. On March 22, 2018, her original probation was reinstated with a drug offender probation added.
Stone said in his response that after her March probation modification, she ceased to be his client. She was arrested again on May 17, 2018, for a violation of probation, again for allegedly having “dirty urine.” Stone was appointed to represent her again. This was settled on Oct. 23, 2018, when the probation was modified to a suspended five-year prison sentence and she was released on her own recognizance.
“[She] alleged that in or around August 2018, after her second VOP arrest, [Stone] approached her requesting sexual favors,” the Bar complaint said. “He also allegedly told her that if she did not comply, she would go to jail.
“[She] stated she felt pressured and complied.”
Stone denied both of these allegations in his response to the Bar, but admitted in his letter “after the resolution of the second VOP, in October, I engaged in regrettable, ill-advised sexual behavior with my former client on two occasions.”
When she asked for money, Stone said, “since I was not her attorney, I did give her cash assistance.”
He said while he gave her money on other occasions, he could remember the details of only three: $100 cash to go to Orlando to check on her children; another $100 or so to go to Tallahassee for a job as an elderly person’s caretaker; and money to leave her home for a few days because one of the people she’d helped police arrest “had driven into her yard and was threatening her.”
An arrest for driving without a license resulted in a third VOP arrest on June 3, 2019, this one without bond. Stone was appointed again. He argued the violation shouldn’t result in a revocation of the probation and presented a Madison County Sheriff’s Office Deputy to testify that the woman was valuable to police on the street.
Stone’s efforts failed. She got sent to prison on Aug. 9, 2019, to serve that five-year sentence.
Stone denied that he’d ever pressured the woman into having sex. He also argued his efforts from her initial probation violation kept her out of prison until her behavior overwhelmed his legal skills, resulting in a third probation violation strike.
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 7:32 AM.
