PER CURIAM — By order filed July 11, 2017, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, suspended the respondent from the practice of law in the Western District of Texas for three years (see In re Disciplinary Complaint Against Rosales, 2017 WL 8180454 [WD, TX], affd 716 Fed Appx 364 [5th Cir]; hereinafter the District Court order).
Sanctions Order The District Court order emanated from a referral by United States Magistrate Judge Mark Lane to the Western District of Texas Disciplinary Committee of the issues raised in an order dated December 7, 2016, involving six captioned cases, wherein Magistrate Judge Lane imposed sanctions against the respondent for bad faith conduct (see Deutsch v. Henry, 2016 WL 7165993, 2016 US Dist LEXIS 168987 [WD TX], affd 716 Fed Appx 361 [5th Cir]; hereinafter the sanctions order). The six captioned cases were: Deutsch v. Henry; Deutsch v. Draker Enters., Inc.; Deutsch v. Chiwawa, Inc.; Deutsch v. Clark, et al.; Deutsch v. La Tierra De Simmons Familia Ltd.; and Deutsch v. Phil’s Icehouse, Inc. The respondent represented the plaintiff, Jon R. Deutsch, an individual with disabilities who requires a wheelchair for mobility. Since 2015, together with the respondent, Deutsch filed 385 lawsuits in the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas. The lawsuits followed a similar model—Deutsch would sue a small business alleging violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (hereinafter the ADA) and its regulations and guidelines, the Texas Human Resources Code, the Texas Architectural Barriers Act, and the Texas Accessibility Standards. Each complaint alleged that Deutsch could not access the defendant’s facilities due to insufficient or inadequate parking for persons with disabilities, lack of required signage, or thresholds or transitions between the parking lot and the business that did not meet the relevant accessibility standards. The violations were mostly real, yet relatively de minimus, and the businesses were mostly unaware that they were not ADA-compliant. The remedies sought were injunctive relief to cure the alleged accessibility violations, declaratory relief, statutory damages, and attorney’s fees and costs. The captioned cases all fit this model. James C. Harrington, a prominent civil rights attorney and former director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, represented the defendants pro bono in all six cases in his individual capacity. The procedural history of the six cases, described in the sanctions order as “copious and convoluted,” included various motions referred by the district judges to Magistrate Judge Lane for disposition, among them, the defendants’ respective motions for sanctions. Magistrate Judge Lane conducted an evidentiary hearing with respect to five categories of behavior cited as sanctionable by the defendants: (1) the respondent’s “false, abusive statements,” consisting of 29 unique statements made by the respondent a total of 113 times in various filings across the six cases; (2) an alleged fabricated email; (3) a criminal stalking charge made by the respondent against Harrington; (4) the respondent’s motion requesting a separate hearing from Harrington; and (5) alleged violations by the respondent of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct (hereinafter the TDRPC). With respect to the false, abusive statements, Magistrate Judge Lane found that the respondent’s 29 false statements, repeated 113 times, were not mistakes, but rather “habitual, bad faith misconduct that demean[ed] not only their intended recipient, but [the respondent] and the federal court in which he filed them as well” (2016 WL 7165993, *18, 2016 US Dist Lexis 168987, *53). Regarding the alleged fabricated email, Magistrate Judge Lane found that the evidence established that the respondent sent the email to himself, doctored it to change both the recipient and the date sent, and then filed it in response to a motion to compel in an attempt to influence the court’s ruling on the motion (see 2016 WL 7165993, *18, 2016 US Dist Lexis 168987, *53). As to the criminal stalking charge, Magistrate Judge Lane found that the evidence “prove[d] that [the respondent] filed a groundless report with the Austin Police Department alleging that Harrington was stalking him and applied for an ex parte protective order based on this report in bad faith” (2016 WL 7165993, *18, 2016 US Dist Lexis 168987, *53). As for the respondent’s request for a separate hearing, Magistrate Judge Lane found the request had been made for an “improper purpose.” Finally, as to the violation of the disciplinary rules, Magistrate Judge Lane left that determination to the appropriate disciplinary bodies. Magistrate Judge Lane found that the respondent conducted himself in bad faith throughout the litigation, and determined that sanctions were warranted, remarking that the District and these defendants were not the first to fall victim to abusive ADA litigation of the Rosales mold that was driven by a profit-making motive (see 2016 WL 7165993, *21, 2016 US Dist Lexis 168987, *61-62). Magistrate Judge Lane, inter alia, awarded Harrington attorney’s fees in the sum of $32,962.50 and referred the matter to the Western District of Texas Disciplinary Committee to determine whether further sanctions were appropriate, including disbarment.
