TRENTON — In the past 18 years, the state Office of Attorney Ethics has disciplined 12 Cape May County lawyers on 15 occasions.
The office investigates and prosecutes ethical matters regarding state attorneys for the New Jersey Supreme Court.
According to the office Web site, the primary purpose of attorney disciplinary proceedings is to protect the public by imposing discipline on a lawyer who has behaved in an unethical manner in handling a client’s case.
Discipline of lawyers may take one of several forms, depending on the particular circumstances and the severity of the offense: admonition, reprimand, censure, suspension from practice, or disbarment, according to the office.
Since 1990, the following county attorneys have been disciplined by the state:
• Raymond L. Poling, of Sea Isle City, was suspended for 14 months on Oct. 2, 1990 after pleading guilty in superior court to one count of filing a false financial statement in submitting a misrepresented closing statement to a lender.
• James E. Panny, of Marmora, was disbarred by consent on Sept. 4, 1990 for knowingly misappropriating $500,000 in clients’ trust funds. The respondent had previously received three private reprimands in 1988 for failure to keep clients reasonably informed and for failure to cooperate with the ethics system.
• Harry A. Delventhal Jr., of Ocean City, was suspended for three months on May 24, 1991 for misrepresenting to his
adversary that he would not seek the release of escrow funds and then tricking his adversary by furtively withdrawing those funds. He also deceived a title company.
• James S. Webb, of Wildwood, was disbarred on Feb. 24, 1997 knowingly misappropriating clients’ trust funds in four different matters totaling almost $21,000.
• Philip A. Valentino Jr., of Wildwood, was suspended on Sept. 8, 1999 for five years after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of mail fraud. Between 1992 and 1996, respondent was part of a scheme to obtain money from insurance companies by submitting fraudulent medical bills that inflated the amount of treatment provided to clients.
• Paul W. Dare, of Avalon, was reprimanded on Oct. 15, 2002 for failing to diligently pursue three client matters, failed to communicate with his clients, failed to reply to his clients’ requests for information, grossly neglected two of the three matters and failed to return a client’s escrow funds.
• Vincent J. Milita II, of Marmora, was reprimanded on July 9, 2003 for representing a client who entered a guilty plea to criminal restraint. Prior to sentencing, respondent sent a letter to the complaining witness in the criminal matter that was snide, sarcastic, and demeaning and had no legitimate purpose other than to embarrass and to repeatedly insult the witness. The respondent was previously disciplined in 1985 for unethical conduct at a criminal pretrial negotiation.
• Paul W. Dare, of Avalon, was disbarred by consent on April 19, 2004 for knowingly misappropriating over $75,000 in trust money from an estate. This case was discovered solely by a random audit program.
• A. Harold Kokes was admonished on April 16, 2004 for failing to disclose to the court a material fact while representing a criminal defendant with knowledge that the court may tend to be misled by such failure.
• Vincent J. Milita II, of Marmora, was suspended for three months on June 15, 2004 for contacting his client’s co-defendant in a criminal matter, although he knew that the co-defendant was represented by another attorney.
• Raymond l. Poling, of Sea Isle City, was reprimanded on May 23, 2005 for representing buyers in real estate transactions where the clients used a title company in which the attorney had a financial interest and stood to earn a fee, all without obtaining required written waivers from the clients.
• Cory J. Gilman, of Avalon, was admonished on May 23, 2005 for engaging in a conflict of interest when, as an associate, respondent prepared real estate contracts for the buyers in ten real estate transactions which included a provision that the buyers agreed to use a title company in which a partner of respondent’s law firm had an interest.
• Stephen W. Thompson, of Avalon, was temporarily suspended on Nov. 7, 2005 pending the outcome of federal criminal proceedings against him for traveling to Russia to engage in sexual relations with a teenage boy for the purpose of videotaping the act and transporting the tape back to the United States. In 2006, Thompson was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison and fined $25,000 for his crimes. On Oct. 21 this year, a motion was made in the state Supreme Court to disbar Thompson.
• Joel A. Mott III, of Ocean City, was reprimanded on April 11, 2006 for engaging in a conflict of interest by representing client-purchasers who obtained title insurance from the respondent’s title insurance company.
• James A. Waldron, of Court House, was suspended for six months after pleading guilty to willfully failing to file an income tax return.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
