Lawyer faces ethics charges again

He is accused of rifling through a judge's papers and trying to get another disqualified.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published July 11, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Tony Lopez (1999)] In a complaint filed Monday with the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida Bar accused attorney Arnold Levine of rifling through papers on one judge's desk and improperly trying to get another disqualified.

TAMPA - After drawing the ire of two Hillsborough circuit judges, prominent attorney Arnold Levine faces formal ethics charges for the second time in his career.

In a complaint filed Monday with the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida Bar accused Levine of rifling through papers on one judge's desk and improperly trying to get another disqualified.

Levine, admitted to the Bar in 1960, vowed Tuesday to fight.

"I'm satisfied that I did absolutely nothing wrong in either of these instances," he said.

Only 5 to 7 percent of attorney discipline cases result in a formal complaint before the state's highest court, said Tony Boggs, who works in the Bar's lawyer regulation division in Tallahassee. Last year, the Bar investigated 8,736 cases; the Supreme Court issued just 359 final orders.

Two sitting judges reported Levine to the body that governs lawyer conduct.

According to the complaint, Judge Richard Nielsen found Levine going through papers on the judge's desk during a recess in a Sept. 11, 2006, hearing.

The stack of papers included the judge's personal notes, copies of pleadings and memos related to the case being heard.

In 2003, a judge removed Levine as the attorney from a case involving the Tampa Bay Lightning after learning that Levine peeked at the Lightning attorneys' confidential records.

That judge was Gregory Holder, the same judge who now has complained to the Bar that Levine tried to "engineer" his disqualification from a case involving a development dispute.

Levine suggested in a February 2006 letter to a federal nominating commission that Holder's application for a federal judgeship should be rejected because he was unqualified for the position.

Levine used that letter as a basis for getting Holder removed from the development dispute case, the Bar found.

Levine "engaged in conduct that involved dishonesty and misrepresentation and conduct that impugned the qualification and integrity of a judge," the complaint states.

Levine said he exercised free speech and an ethical obligation by writing to the nominating commission about Holder. As for the Nielsen situation, the lawyer said he picked up a document that he had faxed to the judge, in plain sight of opposing attorneys, a court reporter and the judge's law clerk.

A judge in Pinellas County will be appointed as a referee to recommend a punishment ranging from a dismissal of the charges to disbarment.

"I expect," Levine said, "to ultimately be exonerated."

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 11, 2007, 00:09:51]