The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed sanctions of an Austin attorney for a three-year suspension and more than $175,000, describing his contentions on appeal as “frivolous.”

A three-judge panel of the appeals court announced its decisions in two orders filed March 27.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Lane of the Western District of Texas had ordered the sanctions against solo practitioner Omar Rosales in December 2016 after finding that Rosales had “defamed opposing counsel with false and abusive statements, attempted to derail the administration of justice with frivolous motions and submitted fabricated evidence to subvert proceedings in this court.”

Lane made those findings in Deutsch v. Henry, et al., Americans with Disabilities Act litigation in which Rosales represented Jon R. Deutsch, who is in a wheelchair. In his order, Lane noted that Deutsch, together with his lawyer, had filed 385 lawsuits against businesses in the Austin Division of the Western District.

In March 2017, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of the Western District concluded that Rosales had acted in “bad faith.”

The Fifth Circuit panel noted in its order that Rosales mischaracterized the sanctions against him as Rule 11 sanctions. The defendants' motion for sanctions and the sanctions order itself “expressly invokes the court's inherent power,” according to the panel.

James C. “Jim” Harrington of Austin, founder of and director emeritus of the Texas Civil Rights Project, represented several of the businesses that Deutsch had sued. He said the litigation focused on small businesses who received letters from Rosales demanding that they either pay a specified amount or he would sue them.

Harrington said he got involved in the litigation because he was concerned that Rosales and his client was using the ADA as “a money-making scam” for themselves.

“That demeans the ADA,” he said.

Harrington said Rosales engaged in “demeaning name-calling and lying about me” during the litigation. Among other things, Rosales alleged that Harrington, a civil rights attorney, had used “racial slurs.”

Harrington said Rosales also falsified an email that Rosales sent to himself, doctored to change the recipient and date, filed with a response to the defendant's motion to compel a deposition in order to influence the court on the matter and then lied to the court about it.

“That's the kind of stuff that hurts the profession,” Harrington said.

Herring & Panzer partner Chuck Herring, who represents the defendants in the appeal, wrote in an email:

“We believe the Fifth Circuit decision is absolutely correct.  As the court said, Mr. Rosales's conduct was 'reprehensible.'  The monetary sanctions and the three-year suspension were well-founded and just.”

Rosales is suspended from practice in the U.S. District Court for the Western District. That effectively suspends Rosales from practicing in any federal court, Herring said.

Texas Lawyer was unable to contact Rosales by phone, and Rosales did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Chuck Herring and his firm, Herring & Panzer.