Cheleden v. State Bar

THE COURT. By this proceeding petitioner seeks to have reviewed the recommendation of the Board of Governors of The State Bar that he be disbarred from the practice of the law by reason of conduct involving moral turpitude, and of violation of his oath and duties as an attorney at law. The proceedings heretofore had were based on six separate orders to show cause, which were issued during the period from February 16, 1940, to December 9, 1940. In the aggregate eight charges were embraced therein, each containing an accusation of professional misconduct by petitioner.

On May 8, 1940, petitioner entered a plea of guilty to a charge of petty theft, a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. He was convicted, but was thereafter granted probation for the period of one year. On receipt of a certified copy of the record of conviction on such charge, this court on January 23, 1941, entered an order by which petitioner was suspended from the practice of the law until further order of the court. Following such proceeding, The State Bar conducted an independent investigation with respect to the misconduct with which petitioner was charged in the several orders to show cause. After hearings were had thereon, the examining committee found petitioner guilty of all the charges except two which were embraced in Proceeding No. 1261 and which were subsequently dismissed. Thereafter, the Board of Governors adopted the findings thus made and approved the recommendation of the examining committee that petitioner be disbarred.

The factual situations on which the several charges were found to be sustained are hereinafter referred to, as follows:

S. F. No. 1246 Petty Theft Charge

On or about December 4,1939, petitioner obtained from one Cameron, the barkeeper of a liquor tavern in the town of San [135]Mateo, the sum of $15, for which he gave a cheek in that amount signed by him as drawer. At the hearings had in these proceedings, petitioner admitted that at the time he cashed the check he had no funds on deposit in the bank on which it was drawn, and claimed it was intended to constitute merely an evidence of indebtedness in the nature of an “I. O. U.” Cameron testified that such was the understanding, although he admitted the check was placed in the cash drawer with other receipts and that on the following day it was endorsed and deposited in the bank together with other currency and checks. The bank refused to honor the check ' and it was returned to the owner of the tavern. Petitioner was requested to repay the sum of $15, which he failed to do, and on March 16, 1940, at the instance of Cameron, who laid a complaint before the District Attorney of Sato Mateo County, petitioner was charged with a violation of section 476a of the Penal Code. Thereafter, and on May 8, 1940, the charge was dismissed and a new complaint charging a violation of section 484 of the Penal Code (petty theft) was issued against petitioner. He entered a plea of guilty to the charge and was convicted, but was granted probation on condition that he make restitution of the sum of $15. Petitioner testified that he repaid such sum and that he had entered a plea of guilty in order to avoid being tried in the superior court. The order of suspension by this court, heretofore referred to, was based on such conviction.