Everett Powell Disbarred by Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission

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Summary: Indianapolis attorney Everett Powell was disbarred for lying and submitting false evidence in support of his law license being reinstated.

Indianapolis attorney Everett Powell has been disbarred after he was caught making false statements to the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission. Powell was charged with making false statements and submitting false evidence when he was trying to be reinstated to practice law.

  

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Powell was brought on by T.G. to help her obtain the money from her trust fund. Another attorney had helped T.G. settle a personal injury action in 2004 but put the money in a special needs trust since T.G. would likely deplete it quickly due to her history of drug and alcohol abuse and of others taking advantage of her. That same year T.G. went to Powell to help her get the funds.

Powell agreed to help T.G. for a fee of one-third of the trust. With minimal effort, he became the successor trustee on her account. He gave her $30,000 and kept $15,000 for himself. Powell was suspended for 120 days without automatic reinstatement from practicing law in Indiana in 2011 for doing this. As predicted, T.G. quickly spent all her funds, mostly on drugs and her partner and his family.

Powell tried to be reinstated but was denied and then denied again in 2014 for failing to make restitution with T.G. and other reasons. In order to get reinstated, Powell traveled to Iowa to meet with T.G., asking her to sign a document claiming he had given her the $15,000. In truth Powell only repaid $1,500 to T.G. She ended up signing the document without realizing what exactly she was doing. When she did, she contacted the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.

Powell was unaware that she had done this when he filed for reinstatement a third time. He sent a letter to the commission, claiming he made full restitutions with T.B. with the signed document as evidence. The commission served a notice of deposition on T.G. so Powell withdrew his petition for reinstatement. The commission went ahead with the deposition, ultimately charging him with multiple violations of Indiana’s Professional Conduct Rules.

Powell provided a statement attacking T.G.’s credibility, claiming he gave her $15,000 in cash. The hearing officer report from 2016 recommended his disbarment for violating the rules. The Indiana Supreme Court agreed and disbarred Powell, to be effective immediately.

Powell’s reinstatement proceedings “brought to light numerous additional uncharged instances of misconduct committed in the wake of our prior suspension order,” the justices wrote in their opinion that his conduct warranted disbarment. “The grounds for the instant charges – Respondent’s elaborate scheme to convince to Commission and this Court that he had made full restitution to T.G. when in fact he had not – are but the culmination of a years-long endeavor to game the system,” the opinion states. “That endeavor ends today.”

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To learn more about other attorneys caught lying, read these articles:

• Austin Attorney Slammed for Fabricating Evidence
• East Hampton Attorney Stole from Clients and Associates
• Established Memphis Attorney Arrested for Rape