Board: Don't reinstate suspended attorney who stole from clients

The Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct has recommended justices not reinstate the license of an attorney who was suspended for stealing thousands of dollars from more than a dozen clients in Lorain and Trumbull counties between 2012 and 2014. The board recommended Thursday that justices reject Robert Johnson's petition for reinstatement to the practice of law, according to documents filed with the court. A three-member panel that heard evidence in December drafted Thursday's report. Johnson, whose last known address was in McDonald in Trumbull County, was given 20 days to object. Johnson, who got his law license in 1989, was initially suspended in March 2014 after failing to respond to a complaint by the Lorain County Bar Association charging him with 26 counts of professional wrongdoing. A complaint filed by the Trumbull County Bar Association added an additional 12 charges, with the 38 total counts affecting 18 clients, according to board documents. Justices suspended Johnson's law license indefinitely in July 2017, and ordered him to make restitution to his former clients and be evaluated by mental health professionals. In December 2021, Johnson provided the board with canceled checks he claimed proved restitution. He also provided documents showing he completed counseling with a therapist in March 2016. However, the disciplinary board found that Johnson was "nonresponsive" to the terms: The Ohio Supreme Court had ordered him to pay $13,090 to 14 former clients, but he failed to give proof of more than $6,200 in payments and did not identify the clients he paid or in what amounts, the board wrote. In 2017, Court News Ohio reported the Lorain County Bar Association investigated in 2012 after Johnson's client trust account was overdrawn and couldn't cover a $5,000 check Johnson made out to fellow attorney Michael Godles. Godles had agreed to help Johnson represent a client, Alice Stevanus, in a personal injury lawsuit without her knowledge or approval. Johnson, also didn't have professional liability insurance at the time, Court News Ohio reported. Stevanus' lawsuit was settled for $65,000, and Johnson deposited the money in his client trust account. He gave $7,500 to Stevanus, took $21,500 in attorney fees, and kept a $36,000 balance in the account, Court News Ohio reported. It was later discovered Johnson made out three checks totaling $37,500 to Godles and investigators determined he "either failed to maintain or refused to produce receipts, invoices, ledgers, or any other material documenting his handling of Stevanus' funds," Court News Ohio reported. (Godles, who was publicly reprimanded by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2010, resigned from the practice of law in October 2014 with discipline pending against him, according to the Board of Professional Conduct.)