Thursday, February 4, 2010

Bigamist Lawyer Gets 6 Months

The Legal Profession Blawg had a link to an Ohio Supreme Court per curiam (by the court) opinion (link to pdf, here) suspending Dennis A. DiMartino a Youngstown lawyer for 6 months for lying on a marriage license application in North Carolina. 

Yes, that's right, Mr. DiMartino could not wait to divorce the first wife he already had back in Ohio and his "fraud" in swearing he had not been married previously in order to obtain a marriage license in North Carolina has cost him.  This fact and his short term bigamy status (he did divorce the first wife back in the Buckeye State after the fact) resulted in Mr. DiMartino taking a 6 month suspension (in reality a 1 year suspension with six months stayed,)

Bear in mind, this is the same Supreme Court that gave Anna Schmalz, a Cincinnati lawyer who screwed the criminal client; the criminal client that ended up in jail when he refused a plea bargain because he couldn't bear the idea of being away from attorney Schmalz (who continued to meet his needs after his incarceration with phone sex); and,  Mr. Schmalz lied about the relationship with the client to Bar investigators.  This lawyer's behavior drew a big fat public reprimand.  Mr. DiMartino's actions in his personal life seem pretty screwed up--and, probably merit the result meted out by the Ohio Supremes, but when you compare the outcome to Ms. Schmalz disciplinary-pass you might forgive the head scratching.   Does the expression arbitrary and capricious come to mind--as my daughter would say:  just sayin'.

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