In re Waisbren

Opinion

THE COURT This is a proceeding to review a recommendation of the Disciplinary Board of the State Bar of California that Avery Waisbren be suspended from the practice of law for four years, commencing September 29, 1972, which was the effective date of our order placing him on interim suspension.

[555]Waisbren, a 46-year-old attorney admitted to practice in 1954, was found guilty by a jury in 1971 on one count of receiving stolen property (Pen. Code, § 496). Six other counts charging violations of the same section were dismissed (Pen. Code, §§ 995, 1118.1). He was placed on probation on conditions which included payment of a $5,000 fine plus $1,250 penalty assessment. The judgment was affirmed. (People v. Waisbren (Nov. 21, 1972) 2 Crim. No. 21420 [unpub. opn.].) He paid the fine and penalty assessment, and in 1973 the court deemed the offense a misdemeanor, terminated his probation (Pen. Code, § 1203.3), and dismissed the case (Pen. Code, § 1203.4).

On August 30, 1972, we placed Waisbren on interim suspension, effective September 29, 1972, since the crime involved moral turpitude (In re Plotner (1971) 5 Cal.3d 714, 715 [97 Cal.Rptr. 193, 488 P.2d 385]), and subsequently, after the judgment was final, we referred the matter to the State Bar on the issue of discipline. (See Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6102.)

Following an evidentiary hearing the local committee unanimously recommended that the interim suspension be terminated, and the State Bar examiner concurred in that recommendation. The board, by a vote of eight to three, recommended that Waisbren be suspended for four years commencing September 29, 1972, and that he be ordered to comply with rule 955, California Rules of Court.

Timely objections to the board’s report and recommendation were not filed, and in December 1974 we imposed the discipline recommended by the board and ordered. Waisbren to comply with rule 955. Thereafter, however, we granted a petition for rehearing, and Waisbren filed belated objections and a brief. (Cal. Rules of Court, rules 951(d); 45(e).) He also filed the affidavit required by rule 955 evidencing his compliance with that rule.

The board’s findings may be summarized as follows, with supplemental facts added thereto in brackets: Since 1951 Waisbren has been in the business of the sale and repair of office-business machines and since 1969 has run his own business, All States Office Machines, Inc., of which he is a 50 percent owner. That business held a second-hand business permit, issued by the Los Angeles Police Commission, but before Waisbren’s arrest never filed required “buy-book reports.”