« Ind. Courts - Still more on: Maryland Public Defender Calls Drug Courts Unconstitutional | Main | Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 4 today (and 13 NFP) »
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Ind. Courts - More on: Criminal charges filed against Plymouth attorney
Updating this ILB entry from March 5, 2008, WTCA (Marshall County) reports, in a story by publisher Carol Anders:
Two charges of theft were filed against a former local attorney, Ronald Gifford, on Monday. Both counts were entered as Class D Felonies.Count I and Count II concern unauthorized control of checks from an account of Bullish, Inc. * * *
On April 7, 2009 Gifford was also scheduled for an initial hearing on two charges of Forgery/Counterfeiting (D Felony) and two counts of Deception (A misdemeanor) stemming from alleged actions taken in 2006 and 2007 by Gifford when he represented two Garden Court projects knows as Fairfield Garden Court and Mentone Garden Court. Both are low-income housing projects.
On October 5, 2008, the Indiana Supreme Court ordered that the license to practice law of Gifford be suspended for a period of at least nine months, beginning November 14, in connection with alleged professional misconduct. Those rulings concerned the Garden Court projects.
In the ruling of the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission, the court found that Gifford failed to seek the proper IRS forms confirming the tax-exempt status for the two projects. The form is required to obtain HUD mortgage grants. The order stated, “For each client, respondent (Gifford) forged an IRS confirmation and used it at closings Because of respondent’s (Gifford’s) actions, each client and HUD incurred unnecessary expense.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 8, 2009 09:00 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts