About a week ago, the blawgosphere met one of the lowest scoundrels to ever call himself a criminal defense lawyer, Frank Pignatelli. Pignatelli, you may recall, was the lawyer who flipped on his clients to save his own scummy butt, and then took the train from Ohio (where his services as a lawyer rat had apparently come to a conclusion) to Colorado so that he could start fresh and find new clients to rat out.
Some lawyers here, you may recall, sought to play the role of apologist and find excuses that would make Pignatelli somewhat less slug-like and despicable. Many criminal defense lawyers are inclined to find ways to explain away wrongdoing, even when it involves someone as disgraceful as Pignatelli. Other of us know when to draw the line. Even the WSJ Law Blog got into the fray. Ironically, Jeralyn Merritt at Talkleft, a Colorado lawyer herself, demurred. You never know who has the balls to say what needs to be said until they’re tested.
Thankfully, someone in Colorado reads posts the practical blawgosphere, because the fine state has suddenly come to realize that they have a scoundrel in their midst. Via Bennett/Hall comes a press release from the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation:
DENVER – The Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation today announced that it has filed a petition to immediately suspend Colorado lawyer Francis (Frank) M. Pignatelli from the practice of law. The petition is now pending before Supreme Court Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero.
The petition alleges that Mr. Pignatelli committed fraud when applying to the Colorado Bar in 2006. It is alleged that Mr. Pignatelli failed to disclose that he was subject of a federal criminal investigation in Ohio and that the federal authorities had informed him that they had sufficient information to charge him with federal crimes. Further, that Mr. Pignatelli had agreed to act as a confidential informant against individuals who believed that they had an attorney-client relationship with him.
Mr. Pignatelli will be served with the petition and if a show cause order is issued by Judge Lucero he will have 10 days within which to respond.
The Office of Attorney Regulation is proceeding with attorney discipline charges related to the petition.
Bummer, Frank. You’ve been outed.
Bennett, after he took off his Pollyanna wig, did some legwork and came up with Pignatelli papers showing that he’s not only a rat, but a garbage lawyer to boot. I don’t blame him for being so criminal defense lawyer-like, though there are times to take the rose-colored glasses off and face the painful reality. This is especially true when basic integrity is on the line.
Does anybody still want to argue that Pignatelli isn’t the poster boy for lawyer scum? Anybody?
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I agree he’s the poster boy for lawyer scum, but what about the prosecutors who were happy to use his info? Aren’t they supposed to also stand up for the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege? Shouldn’t they be disciplined? Of course, I’m pretty sure that will never happen.
Your post inaccurately implies I refrained from criticizing his behavior. Perhaps you missed this part, in the post you linked to:
If he weren’t practicing in my town, I’d have a lot more to say. For now, let me just opine that a lawyer who turns on his own clients hits a new low. Or in the words of Bon Jovi,
Shot through the heart
and you’re to blame
You give love a bad name.
My follow-up post on yesterday’s Supreme Court announcement is here .
While you’re right about the prosecutors, I left them out because my expectations of them are far lower than for defense lawyers and, frankly, I won’t point fingers if our own house isn’t in order.
My post accurately reflects that your “criticism”, and I would hesitate in using that word, was underwhelming. If he opened up in my neighborhood, I would not have hesitated from having “a lot more to say,” even more than I already have.
If he weren’t practicing in my town, I’d have a lot more to say.
That’s exactly what police officers who do not speak out against misconduct say.
I hired Mr. Pignatelli to defend my brother there in Colorado, I live in Chicago and wired him 2500.00 to defend him. I just learned last night of what has been going on there in Colorado, my brother called to inform me. We haven’t heard of such news here. My brother wants to see if he can have his case at least brought back before the courts because obviously there was a breach of attorney/client privledge.
How quickly you criminal defense lawyers condemn one of your own after hearing only a few details about what he may or may not be guilty of. I had no idea you were such a judgmental bunch. It makes me wonder how you feel about your clients!
Of course, I’m a blithering idiot who trolls the internet trying to make trouble, no matter how stupid my comments are, because no one in the real world cares about my pathetic existence.
[Edit Note: I’ve taken some liberties with this post, adding a bit so that our very serious but cowardly citizen figures out that this is not a good choice of blawgs for posting such stupidity.]
Good for the state of Colorado! Maybe PIGnatelli can get a job with his fellow sociopaths at the DEA! PIGnatelli is total scum!
I am/was a client of Mr. Pignatelli, defense attorney from Denver, Colorado. I hired him to defend me against several routine misdemeanor charges in a county adjacent to Denver. He asked for and was paid the fee in total up front. He did such a poor and incompetent job of defending, advising, and communicating with me as a client that my case has become even more complicated and I’ve had more charges filed against me, due to his lack of competency. I’m not only out the fees paid up front ($$2.5 K#, but now must hire someone new,at higher cost due to the increased difficulties of not having competent counsel earlier #or even an advocate who would “show up” at court hearings, let alone communicate with me honestly and reliably#. I would not wish anyone to go to jail, let alone prison. But he surely needs to be censored, if not permanently disbarred. He also should never, never violate client/attorney privilege, unless a capital crime is in process #IE murder, treason,..#. He has been a total disappointment as an attorney, for me, as well as many others here and in Ohio it seems. Maybe he’d like to hire, for me, a good/excellent attorney with the $$ I entrusted to him, as well as provide me with all the files/documents he never gave to me, when he just decided to not “show up” at hearings, etc.? I’d also like for him to spend a few days in one of our fine county jails that we taxpayers fund so well; as I’ve had to do because of his lack of competency and honesty towards me. Perhaps he was too preoccupied with the impending federal charges from Ohio, and later my state of Colorado, to have much time or energy left for such meat/potato’s cases like mine. I’d have done better to try and represent myself than have hired Mr. Pignatelli, and that is almost always a fatal mistake, what with our nearly unintelligibly and confusing system of laws/rules/complex legal proceedings. It’s one of the most confusing, corrupt and corrupting system of laws and rules in the western/civilized world. “Corrupt” is not too strong a term when discussing our vaunted criminal “justice” system. Until one becomes ensnared/enmeshed in the expensive task of trying to obtain any measure of fairness or justice #not the same thing# it is difficult for one to comprehend how torturous and bewildering it can be to the average, or even “above average” adult who tries to cope with it. It criminalizes many people, such as myself, who have never been even close to being accused of any criminal behavior for the previous 65 years of life. What an experience, for one who still supports law, order, and civil behavior! And even though the state of Colorado and it’s local court jurisdictions knew/now know that Mr. Pignatelli misrepresented himself, fraudulently practiced in Colorado, the state is unwilling to assist any of his clients with adequate legal representation to make up for it’s mistake in allowing him to practice law here.He’s a rotten apple within a “rotten system”! W
Update for you: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/125092996671550.xml&coll=2
i cant say who i am but i can tell you the name of the federal operations frank was a informant for.
frank is a 100% snitch he ratted on chevaliee g. robinson he was also the godfather of one of chevaliee’s 3 kids.
he also ratted on kevin tyler both of these men are from akron ohio but lived in the suburban area’s around akron ohio.(medina,tallmadge)
the operations are called, operation “skyhook” and operation “poison ivy”.
i cant tell you how i know this but i can tell you that i’m 100% sure frank pignatelli is guilty of being an undercover informant and ratting out his clients.
I didn’t see the original comment. I made a comment about a year ago, when reading some comments about Mr. Pignatelli on Google. I was appraised of Mr. Pignatelli’s legal problems in Colorado AFTER I had hired/paid him a significant amount of money in Aug/08 to represent me as a defense attorney in a rather simple/routine domestic dispute matter. He not only DIDN’T represent me with any degree of competence or professionalism, he made my legal situation worse when he just walked away from my case and unilaterally decided to not represent me at court, etc. What had been a very simple legal matter, become more complicated by his lack of representation, and any form of reliable communications, but unavailability by phone or office hours/location. Since I never was offered any of the “retainer” money of several thousands of dollars, I was unable to hire another defense attorney and suffered the consequences of being unrepresented by an attorney during the many subsequent court hearings, etc. What a mess and a lot of pain anguish he caused me! How it all came about when he was supposedly under federal indictment in Ohio and was legally allowed to practice in Colorado is a mystery to me. I’d like to know how to get not only the justice/legal representation I paid for, but since he just left/bailed out of my case, how to get any/all of my legal fees (paid in advance) back from him. No one seems to be able to advise me about that. Wonder how many others he left in a similar fix after he lost his license here in Colorado, and what is to stop him from moving to another state and repeating the same behavior? Wilton