22 Texas Lawyers Disciplined for Child Pornography Possession, Forgery, Other Violations
The State Bar of Texas on Friday released the latest list of attorney-discipline cases, which includes an Austin-area attorney whose license was suspended as he appeals convictions for possession of child pornography.
November 01, 2019 at 03:27 PM
4 minute read
From an Austin-area attorney who was convicted of possession of child pornography, to a lawyer caught forging a judge's signature, serious misconduct by attorneys across Texas dotted the latest lawyer-discipline cases.
The State Bar of Texas on Friday released a list of the lawyers who were sanctioned for misconduct and violating attorney ethics codes. Here are a handful of some of the notable cases.
|Child Pornography
The Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals on Sept. 18 suspended the law license of Round Rock attorney Tallion Kyle Taylor, as he appeals three convictions for possession of child pornography. The Commission for Lawyer Discipline requested the suspension, alleging that Taylor's crimes were serious and intentional under the rules of disciplinary procedure.
The indictment in Taylor's criminal case charged him with 10 counts of possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony. A Williamson County jury on Jan. 31 found Taylor guilty of three of the counts, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, but suspended the sentence and fine and placed him on probation for 10 years. Taylor must register as a sex offender, restrict his contact with children and refrain from living within 1,000 feet of a "child-safety zone" like a school or day care center.
Taylor's phone number was not operational, and his criminal-defense attorneys, Ryan Deck and Scott Magee, didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
|Forged Court Record
A grievance committee on Sept. 24 suspended the law license of Robert Ray Smith of Georgetown for five years for misconduct in the case of a client who hired him for nondisclosure orders and criminal expunctions. Smith did not file the client's matters within the timeframe he had promised, and in the end, the client visited his law office to collect her files. Smith then told her he had obtained one nondisclosure order and one expunction order, and gave her file-stamped copies of the documents. But the client learned the records were fraudulent after she visited the Travis County Courthouse.
"Smith forged the judge's signatures on both orders, and created the fraudulent file stamps," the bar's disciplinary actions announcement said.
"I never had any kind of disciplinary problems before," said Smith. "I was in a mental health crisis, and I was in a very bad place, and made some very stupid decisions. I'm paying for them."
Client Funds
The announcement of disciplinary actions showed Houston attorney Kerry Michael Guidry's law license was suspended for five years, starting in January 2020, after a local grievance committee found he had committed misconduct. Among other things, Guidry did not hold his clients' or third parties' funds in a separate trust account. He failed to keep those funds separate from his own, and admitted that he engaged in dishonest, fraudulent or deceitful conduct, among other things, according to the charges.
Guidry declined to comment.
|Frivolous Arguments
The lawyer discipline commission alleged in an April 2019 petition that San Antonio solo practitioner Rodolfo Munoz was representing a client in civil litigation, and he used means with no purpose but to embarrass, delay or burden others. It alleged he made frivolous arguments in pleadings and motions, knowing they contained false statements, meaning them to harass or maliciously injure others. The petition alleged his conduct was meant to disrupt the proceedings, and his positions unreasonably increased the costs, and delayed resolution of the case. Munoz failed to withdraw from the case even a year after the client terminated his representation.
Bexar County's 73rd District Court on May 24 entered a judgment that suspended Munoz's law license for four years, with the first two years being an active suspension and the next two, probation.
Munoz said he denied the allegations of misconduct. He disagrees with the court's ruling. He said he's of Native-American heritage, and believes and argued in court that, "the state of Texas is illegal."
"We were here first. We were here thousands of years ago. The Americans came here and pretended we didn't exist," Munoz explained. "The way they had done that is via the judiciary and the reason the bar association came against me is because I have been getting closer and closer to establishing that."
|Read the discipline announcement:
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