Disciplinary History

Gadsden attorney Clark Vann Stewart was summarily suspended from the practice of law in the State of Alabama pursuant to Rules 8(e) and 20(a), Ala. R. Disc. P., by order of the Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama State Bar, effective May 6, 2019. The Disciplinary Commission’s order was based on a petition filed by the Office of General Counsel evidencing Stewart’s refusal to respond to a request for information concerning a disciplinary matter. [Rule 20(a), Pet. No. 2019-523]

Clanton attorney David Brian Karn was suspended from the practice of law in Alabama for a period of one (1) year by the Alabama Supreme Court effective May 15, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama State Bar’s order reflecting Karn’s guilty plea to violations of Rules 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 1.15, 8.4(a), and 8.4(g), Ala. R. Prof. C. Karn was appointed Administrator ad Colligendum in a conservatorship matter after it was removed to the Chilton County Circuit Court and a will contest was filed. Over a period of two years, Karn prepared and filed inventories for the estate with the Court. As a result, an order was entered against the previous administrator in the amount of $352,205. The previous administrator filed a Motion to Alter, Amend, or Vacate the Court’s order, citing numerous deficiencies in Karn’s inventories. Thereafter, the previous administrator filed a Notice of Appeal in the conservatorship and will contest matters. The Alabama Supreme Court declared the Chilton County Circuit Court was without jurisdiction in the conservatorship matter and remanded the matter back to Probate Court. The Circuit Court vacated all orders entered in the conservatorship matter and transferred it back to Probate Court. The Circuit Judge vacated the order appointing him, but Karn admitted he continued to act as Administrator ad Colligendum. The Chilton County Probate Court ordered Karn to turn over the estate’s property and provide a full accounting within thirty (30) days. The previous administrator filed a Motion to Show Cause after Karn failed to comply with the court’s order. A hearing was set and then continued to allow Karn an additional week to comply with the court’s prior order. Again, Karn failed to comply with the Court’s order. Karn filed an accounting which failed to list the beginning balance of the estate, contained calculation errors, and was not supported by documentation. The accounting disclosed Karn paid himself $44,588 from the estate’s assets which was not authorized by the Court. Pursuant to the Court’s order, he re-paid this amount.

Mobile attorney John Walter Sharbrough, III was suspended from the practice of law in the State of Alabama by the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective April 29, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission’s order that Sharbrough be suspended for failing to comply with the 2017 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements of the Alabama State Bar.

On April 24, 2019, an attorney received a private reprimand for violating Rules 8.2(a) [Judicial and Legal Officials], 8.4(a), and 8.4(g) [Misconduct] of the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct. The respondent attorney was a candidate for District Court Judge. The respondent attorney’s campaign produced a mailer containing an erroneous caricature of the incumbent indicating he paid cash to a former Governor in a “back room deal” to secure an appointment to the Court. The respondent attorney also authored a letter stating the incumbent judge would appoint his “friends and cronies” as Guardians ad Litem continuing to “ride [the incumbent’s] gravy train.” This letter was posted to both the personal and campaign Facebook pages of the respondent attorney without correction. The respondent attorney denied anyone requested the erroneous information be corrected. This denial was not true.

Tuskegee attorney Linda W. H. Henderson was summarily suspended from the practice of law in the State of Alabama pursuant to Rules 8(c) and 20(a), Ala. R. Disc. P., by order of the Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama State Bar, effective April 17, 2019. The Disciplinary Commission’s order was based on a petition filed by the Office of General Counsel evidencing Henderson’s refusal to respond to a request for information concerning a disciplinary matter.

Scottsboro attorney Frank Brian Rice was summarily suspended pursuant to Rule 20a, Ala. R. Disc. P., from the practice of law in the State of Alabama by the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective April 15, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission’s order that Rice be summarily suspended for failing to respond to formal requests for information concerning a disciplinary matter.

Bessemer attorney Lonnie Anthony Washington, Sr. was suspended from the practice of law for a period of three (3) years in the State of Alabama by the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective April 1, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission’s acceptance of Washington’s Conditional Guilty Plea, wherein Washington pled guilty to violating Rules 1.15 and 8.4(c), (d), and (g), Ala. R. Prof. C. Washington voluntarily admitted that he had previously misappropriated client funds from his trust account.

Huntsville attorney Annary Aytch Cheatham was disbarred from the practice of law in the State of Alabama by Order of the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective April 1, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based on the Disciplinary Board’s Order wherein Cheatham was found guilty of violating Rules 1.1 [Competence], 1.4 [Communication], 1.8(a) [Conflict of Interest: Prohibited Transactions], and 8.4(c) and (g) [Misconduct], Ala. R. Prof. C. In 2009, after a son satisfied a mortgage, the son’s father agreed to have the title to the home transferred to the son. Cheatham was retained to have a title transferred from the father’s name into the son’s name. Cheatham informed them they first needed to execute a quit claim deed transferring the home from the father to one of Cheatham’s businesses, Cheatham Group, LLC. Cheatham informed the son that she would then execute a statutory warranty deed from her business to him. In July of 2009, Cheatham had the father execute a quit claim deed in which the home was deeded from the father to Cheatham Group, LLC. That same day, Cheatham had the son sign a fraudulent settlement statement indicating that the son had paid the Cheatham Group, LLC $80,000.00 to purchase the property. Cheatham subsequently failed to deed the home from her business to the son. In January of 2011, a federal tax lien was placed on the son’s property for approximately $22,000.00. At the time, the property was still recorded in the name of the Cheatham Group, LLC. The federal tax lien was issued against the Cheatham Group, LLC for unpaid payroll and employment taxes. Only after the tax lien had been filed on the property did Cheatham file a statutory warranty deed transferring the property from the Cheatham Group, LLC to the son. In 2012, the son began attempting to sell the property and only then learned a federal tax lien had been filed against the property. The son contacted Cheatham in an effort to get her to resolve the tax lien so he could sell the property. Cheatham repeatedly assured him that she was working to resolve the lien with the IRS and through her bankruptcy proceeding. However, Cheatham’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition was dismissed in May of 2013 for her failure to appear. Cheatham texted the son and informed him she was awaiting a court order and would be moving forward with resolving the debt with the IRS. Cheatham did not inform him that her bankruptcy petition had been dismissed. Cheatham offered to sign a repayment agreement if the son chose to sell the property and use the sale proceeds to satisfy the tax lien on her behalf. Relying on Cheatham’s promise to repay him, the son used the sale proceeds from his home to satisfy Cheatham’s federal tax lien in the amount of $22,131.79. Cheatham subsequently agreed to repay him $1,000.00 a month beginning in August of 2013. However, Cheatham failed to do so. Cheatham agreed to repay him a lump sum payment amount of $15,000.00 by December 15, 2013.

Fairhope attorney Robert Maurice Lichenstein, Jr. was suspended from the practice of law in the State of Alabama by the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective March 18, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission’s order that Lichenstein be suspended for failing to comply with the 2017 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements of the Alabama State Bar.

Grenada, Mississippi attorney Robbie Elizabeth Willis, who is also licensed in the State of Alabama, was suspended from the practice of law in the State of Alabama by the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective March 18, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission’s order that Willis be suspended for failing to comply with the 2017 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements of the Alabama State Bar.

Madison attorney Eric Rodney Peak was suspended from the practice of law in the State of Alabama by the Supreme Court of Alabama, effective March 18, 2019. The Supreme Court entered its order based upon the Disciplinary Commission’s order that Peak be suspended for failing to comply with the 2017 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements of the Alabama State Bar.

The Alabama Supreme Court entered an order suspending Ft. Payne attorney Sherry Ann Weldon Dobbins from the practice of law in Alabama for a period of 90 days effective March 8, 2019, of which Dobbins was ordered to serve the first 45 days. The remaining 45 days was ordered held in abeyance pending Dobbins’s successful completion of a 2-year probationary period. The Alabama Supreme Court entered its notation based upon the Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama State Bar’s order reflecting Dobbins’s guilty plea in a disciplinary matter to violations of Rules 1.1 [Competence], 1.3 [Diligence], 1.4 [Communication], 8.4(a) and 8.4(g) [Misconduct], Ala. R. Prof. C.

Thibodaux, Louisiana attorney David Winston Ardoin, who is also licensed in the State of Alabama, was ordered by the Disciplinary Board of the Alabama State Bar to receive reciprocal discipline of a one (1) year suspension from the practice of law in the State of Alabama, effective February 28, 2019. The suspension was fully deferred pending completion of a two (2) year probationary period. Ardoin was found guilty of violating Rules 8.4(a) and (b) [Misconduct], of the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct based on his arrest for DUI.

On March 12, 2019, the Supreme Court of Alabama issued an order accepting the voluntary surrender of Thomas Glenn Mancuso’s license to practice law in the State of Alabama, with an effective date of February 22, 2019.

Montgomery attorney Christopher Bernard Pitts was disbarred from the practice of law in Alabama effective February 22, 2019 by order of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Pitts’s disbarment was based upon his guilty plea entered in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to one count of Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution and the corresponding sentence entered November 19, 2018 ordering Pitts to serve thirty-seven (37) months in the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons.