How to start? This is about Bubba “the Love Sponge” Clem, Todd “MJ” Schnitt, Tampa radio, their lawyers and even Hulk Hogan’s sex-tape drama, since Clem was tied up in that at the same time.
The convoluted cases involves sneaky calls to police, lots of alcohol, a lawyer who didn’t drive his car to the bar, a paralegal who flirted and more, according to Courthouse News.
The end result is the disbarment of three lawyers who had been working for Clem, Robert D. Adams, Stephen Diaco and Adam Robert Filthaut.
The two DJs were fighting in court over name-calling. Allegedly, Clem called Schnitt a “lying piece of cr–” and more during an on-air rant.
It got strange on Jan. 23, 2013, when the court battle had been going on for some five years, CN reported.
“Trial had recessed for the day, and a paralegal at the firm representing Clem found herself at the same restaurant as Schnitt’s attorneys,” the report said. “As recounted in the court’s ruling, paralegal Melissa Personius recognized attorney Phillip Campbell at the restaurant as her bosses’ courtroom opponent. Campbell did not recognize Personius.”
So, the report said, Personius called Adams and he called Filthaut, who called friends in the police department.
“Meanwhile, Personius flirted with Campbell at the restaurant, buying drinks and encouraging the attorney to drink. Because of Filthaut’s call, a Tampa police officer waited outside the restaurant to see if Campbell would attempt to drive home,” the report said.
The court decision was blunt, “Personius openly and obviously flirted with Campbell, encouraged him to drink, and bought him drinks.”
Apparently, Campbell didn’t drive that night. He planned to walk home a few blocks, however, CN reported, Personius “ensured that the lawyer got behind the wheel … by insisting on retrieving her car from valet.”
Campbell had tried to convince Personius to leave her car at the bar, where it would be secure, and not drive that night, but she “insisted that it had to be moved.”
“Our of frustration, he agreed to move the car to a lot near his apartment (a few blocks away) and call her a cab from there,” the court said.
Sure enough, he was arrested on a DWI count.
Then those who conspired to get him drunk talked in the media about how the behavior “was a mockery of the judicial system and an embarrassment.”
The report said there was a bunch of other misbehavior, such as the offending lawyers keeping Campbell’s trial bag, which he left in Personius’ car.
And there was “no attempt to inform him or return the bag.”
The dispute, refereed by William Douglas Baird, suggested permanent disbarment for Diaco, Adams and Filthaut, and it was approved by the Florida Supreme Court, which found, “The respondents’ actions constituted a deliberate and malicious effort to place a heavy finger on the scales of justice for the sole benefit of themselves and their client.”
The court wrote: “The respondents’ willingness to inflict and indifference to causing such harm is, in the words of the referee, quite ‘stunning.’ The referee did not find remorse as a mitigating factor for either respondent, and neither of them challenges this.”
The court found “the misconduct in this case is unique and essentially unprecedented.”
“The respondents’ actions constituted a deliberate and malicious effort” to do damage.
It resulted in “collateral damage” to Campbell, his clients’ case, Sgt. Fernandez, the legal system, the legal profession and the public’s confidence in both, the court found.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/08/27/love-sponge-mj-courtroom-fight-leads-to-disbarment-for-3/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/love-sponge-mj-courtroom-fight-leads-to-disbarment-for-3/
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