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An Orlando lawyer stole $111,000 from clients, Bar says, got suspended and ignored it

An emergency suspension after an auditor looked into two client complaints about $111,001 of stolen money didn’t stop an Orlando attorney from filing a case in probate court the next day.

The violations in the above paragraph are why the state Supreme Court has disbarred Orlando lawyer Stephen Jones, the managing member of SMJ Law Firm PLLC.

Jones had been admitted to the Florida Bar in 2015. A Miami Herald reporter left a message for Jones at the phone number on his Florida Bar profile.

The referee’s report says Jones never filed an answer to the Bar’s Nov. 3 emergency suspension petition. About 20 minutes before a Nov. 23, 2020 case management conference, Jones sent an email to the referee and Bar’s attorney that he wouldn’t be available and asking that no hearings on the case be scheduled the first, third or fourth weeks of December. He also said his responses, including a motion to quash, would be coming on Nov. 25.

That’s the last the referee or the Bar heard from Jones.

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Cash in, cash out, cash gone, part 1

A Jones client, William Fleming, filed a Florida Bar complaint in February 2020 saying he’d seen nothing of 11 checks for $11,001.95 that went to Jones in 2018 and 2019 after final judgment in a case. Fleming also said his attempts to contact Jones were met with silence.

The referee’s report says Jones also had no words for the Bar when it asked for his response to Fleming’s complaint not only later in February, but in July 2020 by snail mail, email and different phone numbers.

Jones’ trust account records talked when the Bar opened them with a subpoena in August — none of Fleming’s checks had been deposited in the trust account, as Florida Bar rules require. Also, saying something was that the copies of the checks Fleming provided the Bar showed endorsements on the checks that, the referee’s report said, “appeared to match [Fleming’s] signature on the trust account signature card provided to the Bar by Bank of America.”

Jones didn’t respond, prompting the Bar to file a petition for contempt to show cause on Sept. 24. On Oct. 13, the state Supreme Court demanded a response from Jones, explaining why he shouldn’t be held in contempt.

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Cash in, cash out, cash gone, part 2

Also, in October, 2020, a Bar complaint from Jesse Beardsley said a $100,000 insurance settlement went to Jones, but Jones didn’t use the money for Beardsley’s medical bills. Beardsley’s attempts at reaching Jones were as unsuccessful as Fleming’s.

The Bar auditor found Beardsley’s $100,000 hit Jones trust account on May 15, 2019, but “the entire $100,000 settlement was depleted over the next six months in a series of cash withdrawals, a transfer to another Bank of America account, a cashier’s check payable to Stephen M. Jones Law Firm PLLC and a Venmo payment with the reference “Stephen Jones.”

But no payments to Beardsley or any of his medical providers. In fact, the auditor found Jones’ trust account balance on Nov. 15, 2019, was negative $103.35.

So, with Jones also not answering any questions about this complaint, the Bar filed its petition for emergency suspension on Nov. 3, 2020. The state Supreme Court granted that emergency suspension on Nov. 9, 2020.

On Nov. 10, Jones e-filed a petition for removal of trustee in 18th Judicial Circuit probate court.

The referee recommended disbarment. The state Supreme Court agreed with the recommendation.

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