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A Lawyer Who Helped an Exoneree Blow Through $750,000 Is Under Investigation
Retweeted by LoomingCrisisHat: https://twitter.com/Popehat
This is the most infuriating thing you will read today. If you hate lawyers, or if you hate cops, or if you just hate people, you're in for a ride.
Link to tweet
FILED 5:25 p.m.
04.20.2018
NEWS
A Lawyer Who Helped an Exoneree Blow Through $750,000 Is Under Investigation
The North Carolina State Bar probes Patrick Megaro.
By JOSEPH NEFF
The North Carolina State Bar is investigating a Florida lawyer for his treatment of two mentally disabled clients who spent 31 years in prison before being declared innocent. ... Henry McCollum and his half-brother, Leon Brown, were exonerated in 2014 after serving decades in prison for the notorious rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. They received $750,000 each from the state in compensation.
After they were freed, lawyer Patrick Megaro pocketed a third of each award despite having done virtually no work on the exonerations or pardons the men received in 2015. He approved loans at 42 percent interest for the brothers and a $20,000 payment to two women, self-described advocates for the brothers who brought Megaro the case. ... McCollum went broke and began borrowing more money at 39 percent with the lawyer’s approval.
The Marshall Project detailed the brothers’ plight in a story in The New York Times. ... McCollum’s court-appointed guardian removed Megaro from the case earlier this week. High-powered Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan Lovells, where U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts once practiced, now will be representing him for free in his lawsuits against the police agencies who allegedly wronged him.
....
The president of North Carolina Advocates for Justice, an association of criminal defense and plaintiff lawyers, also asked the bar to investigate. This is not Megaro’s first run-in with the bar, which reprimanded him in 2015 for making false and misleading statements about legal services provided through an out-of-state law firm not licensed in North Carolina. ... The bar also has a third case pending: An Alamance County woman filed a complaint saying Megaro did nothing after she paid him thousand of dollars to appeal her divorce case. The judge dismissed the appeal after ruling that Megaro “blatantly disregarded” court rules.
ORIGINALLY FILED Friday, April 20, 2018 at 5:25 p.m. ET
04.20.2018
NEWS
A Lawyer Who Helped an Exoneree Blow Through $750,000 Is Under Investigation
The North Carolina State Bar probes Patrick Megaro.
By JOSEPH NEFF
The North Carolina State Bar is investigating a Florida lawyer for his treatment of two mentally disabled clients who spent 31 years in prison before being declared innocent. ... Henry McCollum and his half-brother, Leon Brown, were exonerated in 2014 after serving decades in prison for the notorious rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. They received $750,000 each from the state in compensation.
After they were freed, lawyer Patrick Megaro pocketed a third of each award despite having done virtually no work on the exonerations or pardons the men received in 2015. He approved loans at 42 percent interest for the brothers and a $20,000 payment to two women, self-described advocates for the brothers who brought Megaro the case. ... McCollum went broke and began borrowing more money at 39 percent with the lawyer’s approval.
The Marshall Project detailed the brothers’ plight in a story in The New York Times. ... McCollum’s court-appointed guardian removed Megaro from the case earlier this week. High-powered Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan Lovells, where U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts once practiced, now will be representing him for free in his lawsuits against the police agencies who allegedly wronged him.
....
The president of North Carolina Advocates for Justice, an association of criminal defense and plaintiff lawyers, also asked the bar to investigate. This is not Megaro’s first run-in with the bar, which reprimanded him in 2015 for making false and misleading statements about legal services provided through an out-of-state law firm not licensed in North Carolina. ... The bar also has a third case pending: An Alamance County woman filed a complaint saying Megaro did nothing after she paid him thousand of dollars to appeal her divorce case. The judge dismissed the appeal after ruling that Megaro “blatantly disregarded” court rules.
ORIGINALLY FILED Friday, April 20, 2018 at 5:25 p.m. ET