Fla. lawyer disbarred for sex with client

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A lawyer who let a female client work off her fee through sex has been disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court.

The justices Thursday cited James Harvey Tipler's guilty plea to solicitation to prostitution as one of several instances of professional misconduct.

Tipler admitted having sex with his 18-year-old client and another woman in exchange for credits toward her $2,300 fee for handling a Bay County assault case, the justices wrote.

He agreed to take off $200 every time he had sex with her and $400 when she arranged sex with another woman.

The justices also found in other cases he altered evidence, caused a witness to give false testimony, charged excessive fees and stole clients' money.

-----

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Busy night at SideBern's: allegations of sex in a restroom, a fight, an arrest

TAMPA -- Police say that allegations of sex in the women's restroom at SideBern's, one of Tampa's priciest restaurants, prompted a rolling fistfight and, later in the parking lot, the arrest of a lawyer who tried too hard to get involved.

According to the police report, around 11 p.m. Saturday Aimee Marie Dias, 35, said she walked into the women's restroom at SideBern's, 2208 Morrison Ave., and saw two people having "sexual relations."

They are identified in the report as George Anthony Hochschwender, a teacher at Tampa General Hospital, and Jodi Jacolow, 32, of Tampa. Dias is a lawyer.

According to Dias' account, she verbally confronted the pair before she was assaulted. "Ms. Dias said she and Ms. Jacolow went to the floor rolling around exchanging punches, pushes, etc.," the report states.

Hochschwender told police there was no sex, but that he "was upset and Ms. Jacolow was calming him as a result of a poor relationship." Hochschwender told police that Dias threw a punch at him, then the ensuing fight between the two women spilled out to the main bar floor.

Enter Brent Warren Yessin, 45, of Tampa.

According to the police report, Yessin (left) was waiting for a valet to return his car outside the restaurant. He persistently offered his services and even misrepresented himself to officers as an attorney for those involved.

Police arrested him for refusing to leave the restaurant. According to the report, Yessin resisted arrest, which required four officers to wrestle him to the ground. The bandage on his chin is a result of that action.

Reached by phone, Yessin declined to comment. He was held for four hours on $1,000 bail at the Orient Road Jail on charges of obstructing an officer without violence.

Initially, Dias and Jacolow were arrested on battery charges, but both agreed to drop the charges.

Hochschwender and Jacolow could not be reached for comment. Diad declined comment.

  -Luis Perez and Chandra Broadwater, Times staff writers

 

TAMPA -- Police say that allegations of sex in the women's restroom at SideBern's, one of Tampa's priciest restaurants, prompted a rolling fistfight and, later in the parking lot, the arrest of a lawyer who tried too hard to get involved.

Bank robbed with front-end loader

A front-end loader was used to rob a bank in Jupiter, according to PalmBeachPost.com.

The machine was used to rip a cash machine from its foundation at a Bank of America.

A video shows the thieves loading the machine onto the bed of a "large white commercial flatbed truck."

Pole dance too active, suit says

A Margate man is suing a Pompano Beach strip club, saying a dancer's shoe flew off during a pole dance, shattering the mirrored ceiling and hitting him, according to OrlandoSentinel.com.

Charles Privette's attorney says his client suffered a small cut to his eyebrow, headaches and nosebleeds from the shoe and the falling glass.

The suit says the Booby Trap breached "its duty when its employee failed to perform her routine in (a) reasonably safe manner."

My plate is better than your plate

A nonprofit group proposing a custom Hispanic license plate has filed a federal lawsuit, claiming discrimination and infringement of free speech, according to OrlandoSentinel.com.

The plate has proved controversial, starting with "Hispanics Discovered Florida" juxtaposed on a Spanish ship, then being modified to "Hispanics Settled Florida."

But the issue in question concerns the requirement that organizations seeking specific plates submit county-by-county surveys showing at least 30,000 of the plates will sell. The group pushing the plate says this survey method will give a skewed result, because most Hispanics live in the south and central part of the state.

By the way, a three-year moratorium on new custom plates went into effect a few months ago.

That's quite a handshake she had

A lawyer has been charged with assaulting a federal prosecutor with a handshake in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Kathy Brewer Rentas spent a night in solitary confinement and must get psychological counseling for anger management. The handshake was so violent that Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Keene's head and neck snapped forward and then back, jerking her shoulder and arm forward, a U.S. marshal said.

Police: Lawyer gave mistress clients' money

Anthony Scalese is a Pembroke Pines lawyer with a wife, a mistress and major legal problem. He stole more than $94,000 from clients and gave thousands to his mistress, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. Anthony Scalese's law license has been suspended, his home is in foreclosure and his former law partner has sued him. Scalese, 41, is charged with organized fraud, forgery and three counts of grand theft. He's been in jail for more than a month. One victim is a man whose 11-year-old son was critically injured in a car wreck and gave Scalese $31,644 to represent him. The money's gone.

Man sues over exploding exercise ball

A Jacksonville man has filed a lawsuit over what he considers a little-known danger lurking in gyms across the country: exploding exercise balls. Pete Royal, 61, says he was leaning back on an exercise ball as he prepared to lift two 75-pound dumbbells when the ball exploded beneath him, the Florida Times-Union reports. He couldn't use his arms for six months and required five surgeries, Royal says. The balls, which look like giant beach balls and are supposed to strengthen stomach and back muscles, are common in gyms. Every time he sees someone doing what he did, Royal says, he warns them and recalls his own experience. He's suing the local YMCA and the ball maker, TKO Sports Group. Royal's lawyer says the ball should have slowly deflated, not explode.

Lawyer who blogged about judge could lose license

A lawyer could his license for calling a Broward County judge an "evil, unfair witch'' and questioning her mental stability on a blog, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The Florida Bar concluded that Sean Conway, a former public defender now in private practice, impugned the integrity Broward Circuit Judge Cheryl Aleman. Conway sees nothing wrong with what he said, and his lawyer says his comments on a local courthouse blog are protected by the First Amendment. Here's the irony: The Bar issued its finding as Aleman was being tried by the Judicial Qualifications Commission about the way she treats defense attorneys.

Willie Gary may be a cad, but he's no rapist

High-flying Stuart lawyer Willie Gary (left) has been cleared of sexual assault but his own words to police about his alleged victim make him out to be a two-timing cad, the Palm Beach Post reports.

In the police interview, Gary brags about seducing the woman, stealing her from his own son and fooling around with another woman at the same time because his wife was out of town. And he gave police a video tape of his son, Kenny, having sex with the woman.

And while he insisted the sex was consensual, he made it clear that's all he wanted. "You know, maybe I wanted to get (some sex), but I didn't want to go sit down and have dinner with her."

"He talks about her like she's a piece of meat," said the woman's attorney, Linda Capobianco. "It's disgusting."

Gary, one of Florida's most successful lawyers, is famous for his two privates jets, waterfront mansion and luxury cars.

Times photo by Carrie Pratt from 2000.