Another Big Law Bad Guy Caught In Child Porn Distribution and Possession

Late last week a capital markets lawyer and partner at Allen & Overy (which according to its website is a major international law firm practicing in 37 cities), Edward De Sear (pic) was arrested by the FBI and charged with distributing child pornography.

According to the Village Voice:  The complaint filed by the FBI includes graphic descriptions of three videos and images they had traced back to an IP address registered to De Sear. Two feature an adult male in sexual acts with a pre-pubescent boy, and another depicts an adult male with a pre-pubescent female who was bound by rope. 

During the execution of the search warrant, on or about July 14, 2011, law enforcement agents interviewed EDWARD DE SEAR, who admitted, in substance and in part, that

(1) he downloads and shares child pornography using his laptop;
(2) he uses the P2P network to download and share child pornography;
(3) he is the only person in his home who uses the P2P network; and
(4) he receives sexual gratification from viewing child pornography

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Last year, I passed along many examples of professionals of all sorts involved in this repulsive stuff.

On some psychological level I get how a person gets into the neurological habit of clicking on images and downloading this garbage.  But I can't fathom the act of making it, producing computer files comprised of this disturbing stuff, and distributing it.   You would think a lawyer would completely understand the perniciousness, let alone the danger in these criminal acts.  But as we saw last year, Judges, lawyers, child care workers, psychologists, physicians, bankers and law enforcement are not immune from committing these crimes.  

In addition, the FBI complaint states that:

Welfare Queens

The Dayton Daily News has the story of the local woman who is going to jail for deliberately cheating welfare while her husband worked a job paying $100k a year and while they lived in a house on a golf course.  This is reporter Lauren Pack's story: 

"A Warren County woman was sentenced to jail this morning, Sept. 13, for cheating the welfare system out of thousands in federal aid.

Teri Rivarde, 47, of the 3000 block of Woodhaven Drive, Franklin, was convicted by a Butler County jury in July of grand theft and two counts of tampering with records, for receiving $14,000 in aid and medical services while her husband was working a $100,000 a year job and the couple was living in a house on a golf course, according to Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Oney sentenced Rivarde today to six months in the county jail and five years probation. She was ordered to make restitution of about $12,500, with $5,900 already being collected from the defendant.

Rivarde’s jail term was stayed until Monday, Sept. 20. After serving her time, the judge also ordered that she serve 500 hours of community service at Shared Harvest food pantry.  Rivarde moved to Butler County after Hurricane Katrina and received aid to get the family back on its feet. After moving to Warren County, she still represented to officials that she was living in Butler County.

'Her husband had a great job and they had a great house,' Piper said after the trial in July. He added that Rivarde was even seen going out to dinner and paying grooming fees of $125 for her Shih Tzu dog.  Rivarde falsified applications for food stamps and Medicaid, according to trial evidence. A Butler County Job and Family Services case worker discovered the fraud.

Before sentencing, family members spoke on Rivarde’s behalf. She also apologized and asked that Oney not take her away from her family.  Rivarde completed forms multiple times, knowing she had income and knowing that she had left Butler County, according to prosecutors.

'It was egregious greed.'  said Assistant Prosecutor Susan Schultz. She added Rivarde took from people who were in need in a time of economic difficulty.  Rivarde faced up to 11 years in prison, but Schultz said she was satisfied with the sentence.  'She will spend some in jail and she will have to pay back to the community from which she stole,' Schultz said." 

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Last week, readers of Bad Lawyer know I traveled to Washingotn, D.C. to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.  Driving in from Maryland, we passed the buildings housing Fannie Mae, and a gigantic corporate office palace for the Bank of America, and the old cynical me thought, "Welfare Queens."

I wonder how many tax payer subsidized rounds of golf have been played by the executives of the BoA, and Fannie?  How much did the partners at Jones & Day which has offices snuggling up against the U.S. Senate knock down while lobbying for tax breaks for their corporate masters?  We know what attorney/trustee Irving Picard, the partner at Baker & Hostettler expects to be paid (hell, he wants $28 million just for expenses) for a few months work on the bankruptcy of the Madoff Securities scheme.  I wonder what kind of hotel accommodations, he and his lawyers arrange for their travel and comfort on the tax payers' dime?  Golf anyone? 

I know that this is the negative and cynical Bad Lawyer sounding off, but society's real welfare queens have marble hallways, silver table settings, and crystal chandeliers.  Dayton's Teri Rivarde, who most assuredly committed a crime, was a piker compared to the Welfare Queens who live large in the corporate and big law offices of our beautiful land.

Big Law Boys Get a Big Break

Two former Big Law Associates who already got huge break son charges of rape from a 2005 drunken 3-way, get a further break when the Illinois disciplinary authorities assess short suspensions of heir licenses. 

The original Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel reported the first big break as follows: 

"Nobody but the two Chicago men and the woman from Berlin knows for certain exactly what happened at the private boat landing on Green Lake in early morning of Aug. 7, 2005.  The 29-year-old woman says the two men - then both attorneys at prominent Chicago law firms - held her down on the hood of her car and cheered each other on as they repeatedly raped her.

The two men say what happened was consensual sex.

The undisputed facts after that night, from the bail amounts and the plea bargains to the minimal sentences and the district attorney's resignation, have some locals in this small tourist town 30 miles west of Fond du Lac wondering if justice was served or if two big-city attorneys got a 'good-ole-boy' break.

The woman met the two men, Stephan Addison (top pic) , 28, of Medinah, Ill., and Benjamin Butler (bottom pic), 29, of Chicago - both 2004 graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School - at a bar in Ripon. The men told her they were attorneys, and as the bar was closing the woman agreed to give them a ride to a lake house owned by Addison's family. She was sober, she later told authorities. [ . . . ] As they drove, the men groped her, pulled at her clothes and made sexually explicit comments, according to the criminal complaint. Once the car was parked at a boat landing near the house, she said, the men bit her, pulled her hair, tore off her clothes, dragged her from the car and pushed her onto the hood, where they raped her and forced her to perform oral sex. After she broke free and tried to get back in the car, she said, Addison pushed her face-down on the hood and raped her again.

Addison and Butler say the woman was 'playful' and 'having fun the whole time.'

Then in December 2006, Green Lake County District Attorney James Camp and the defense struck a deal reducing the charges for both men to reckless endangerment of safety and sexual gratification in public.  The reduction dropped the amount of prison time each faced from 60 years for each count of sexual assault to 10 years for reckless endangerment. Camp requested nine months in jail for Addison and six months for Butler.
In another move that stunned the town, McMonigal stayed prison sentences and sentenced Addison to 500 hours of community service and 30 days in jail with work release. Butler got 300 hours of community service. Neither had to register as a sex offender."

Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABAJournal.com reports the disciplinary break:

"An Illinois hearing board has recommended short suspensions for two former BigLaw associates for their conduct during a long day of partying in Wisconsin that ended with a sexual encounter and allegations of rape.  The hearing board report recommends a 60-day suspension for Stephan Addison, who formerly worked at Seyfarth Shaw, and a 30-day suspension for Benjamin Butler, who had worked at Schiff Hardin. Addison now has a solo legal practice and is a consultant for a private equity company, while Butler is a solo and an independent contractor with Collins, Bargione and Vuckovich. Both are 2004 graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School."

The disciplinary opinion is at the link.
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Narcissistic assholes.

Overbilling!

Greenberg Traurig is this big ass firm, 1775 lawyers in 30 offices worldwide.  You know, Big Law. 

Well it turns out one of their lawyers, Mark J. McCombs, bilked a Chicago suburb out of a $1 million bucks through overbilling, according to the Chicago Tribune. Oooh, what a tale of Big Law woe.  This is from Matthew Walberg's article on tha case:

"Prosecutors alleged the veteran attorney abused long-standing professional and personal relationships with village officials to overbill the village by $1 million for work that was never performed. While McCombs did not pocket the money personally, Assistant State's Attorney John Mahoney argued that the thefts boosted McCombs' standing in the law firm and set him up for higher pay.

The scheme came to light last Dec. 31 when officials from Community School District 218, one of five governmental agencies that benefitted from five tax-increment finance districts in the tiny one-mile square suburb, grew suspicious about the lack of information given by McCombs in a presentation, prosecutors said.

When confronted with the alleged theft, McComb allegedly begged village officials to allow him to pay back some of the money out of his own pocket and warned them that his firm would tie the village up in expensive litigation if the matter was made public, according to a prosecution filing. Prosecutors said McCombs allegedly admitted to cooperating witnesses that he overbilled the village by $600,000 to $800,000, but authorities believe the amount was more than one million.

Mahoney asked Circuit Judge Ramon Ocasio III to set bond at $1 million cash, which would require McComb to post the full amount in order to be released from custody. He argued that McCombs' theft occurred at a time when District 218 and another elementary school district that relied on the TIF funds were 'near or on the verge of financial ruin'."
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Think this is an isolated incident?  Guess again. 

McComb got caught and he compounded his mistake by stupidly letting his conscience kick in.  Big Law billing practices make small time Bad Lawyers look like charities.  When these operators get into your small governing entity watch out!  Big Law flies 1st class, and someone pays for it.