The Connecticut Statewide Grievance Committee released decisions in two cases involving attorneys—New York and Stamford-based attorney Don Carlos Jr. and former Hartford solo practitioner Justin Freeman—who faced ethics proceedings in August.

Carlos was suspended from practicing law in Connecticut for 30 months, retroactive to Oct. 2, 2018. The penalty was reciprocal to a suspension he received in the New York Supreme Court's appellate division.

Carlos was found guilty in New York of misappropriating client funds, commingling personal funds with client and third-party funds, failing to maintain required bookkeeping records, and providing false deposition testimony and written statements to the New York Attorney Grievance Committee. He also failed to pay personal incomes tax for multiple years, and misused his Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts to shield his personal funds from tax levies.

Freeman was sentenced to eight months in prison for filing false tax returns.

Freeman, who specialized in family law, personal injury and criminal defense, reported to prison on July 1. In addition to the eight-month sentence, he must also serve one year of supervised release for filing misleading tax returns that omitted more than $1.2 million in income.

The government said Freeman lived a lavish lifestyle with money that should have gone to the Internal Revenue Service. Among other things, prosecutors said Freeman owned three houses, a boat and six luxury cars.

According to details in Freeman's plea agreement, the attorney reported $476,000 in total income for 2010, when he earned about $860,000. For 2011, Freeman reported $410,000 in total income, not the nearly $1.1 million he made, according to court records. And in 2012, he reported about $530,000 of nearly $700,000.

Hartford Superior Court Judge David Sheridan set a two-year suspension from law for Freeman, retroactive to Feb. 15.

"It appears that the respondent has learned a brutal lesson that honesty in all dealings is the better habit, whether or not there is a possibility that any dishonesty will be discovered," Sheridan wrote in his Aug. 16 order of discipline.

The judge also noted a mitigating factor.

He wrote, "As evidence of his dedication to his clients, the respondent took the unusual step of personally meeting with over 600 clients to inform them of the nature of his conviction and suspension, to advise them to seek other counsel, and to apologize because he had 'let them down.'"

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