Attorney lied to committee about visit to disabled client that didn’t happen
By Kristi Tousignant
The Daily Record Newswire
BALTIMORE — An attorney who neglected elderly and disabled clients as their court-appointed guardian has been suspended from practicing law in Maryland after receiving a similar sanction in Washington, D.C.
Stephanie Y. Bradley was indefinitely suspended by the Maryland Court of Appeals last week after being suspended for two years by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Bradley did not visit or contact a man with developmental disabilities for whom she was a court-appointed guardian for nearly 10 years, according to an opinion by the D.C. Court of Appeals. She then lied to a hearing committee about the frequency of her contact with the man.
Bradley also failed to stop the caretaker of an elderly woman, for whom she was also a court-appointed guardian, from stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A call placed to Bradley’s office in Washington, D.C., was not returned. Glenn M. Grossman, bar counsel to the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland, declined to comment Friday.
Bradley served as the court-appointed guardian for Calvin Beard from 1994 to 2004, according to the D.C. Court of Appeals’ opinion.
Beard suffered severe head trauma and had been hospitalized in Washington for several months when Bradley secured his transfer to a nursing home.
The hearing committee recommended a 90-day suspension, finding that Bradley “seemed honest.” The Office of Bar Counsel, however, recommended a two-year suspension, maintaining that Bradley “intentionally lied” to the hearing committee and noting that it was not her first sanction.
Bradley, in turn, argued that any false testimony was not intentional and that she had trouble remembering events from more than 10 years ago.
The D.C. Court of Appeals found she had purposely lied to the committee about her representation of Beard.
The Maryland Court of Appeals reciprocated the sanction last last week, stating that Bradley could not apply for reinstatement until she had been readmitted in Washington, D.C.
