State Senator Derrick Shepherd’s Law License Suspended by Louisiana Supreme Court

I am hoping that Louisiana State Senator Derrick Shepherd expected the state Supreme Court to suspend his law license due to being charged with conspiracy in a federal money laundering case. What a scumbag. He reminds of Georgia’s crook former Rep. Ron Sailor who is currently behind bars for much the same thing, but he also robbed the church he pastored blind. According to KATC.com, the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates complaints about lawyers, claims Sen. Derrick Shepherd has engaged in a pattern of “serious misconduct” in his 11 years of practicing law. Yeah, the chickens have come home to roost!

According to media reports, the Supreme Court, acting on a petition filed by the office earlier this month, voted Thursday to suspend the Marrero Democrat’s law license indefinitely. Two of seven justices dissented from the decision, saying they would have ordered a hearing on the matter first.

Shepherd is accused of failing to safeguard clients’ money, misleading a client’s health care provider about the status of a case and failing to properly supervise a non-lawyer assistant.
Shepherd also allegedly allowed a former Mississippi lawyer who was disbarred following an embezzlement conviction to engage in the unauthorized practice of law under his supervision.
Shepherd’s “pattern of misconduct has violated the public trust, has fallen well below the standard of conduct expected of all attorneys, and poses a threat of harm to the public and the profession,” reads a memo attached to the petition.

Of course, the scumbag has denied the charges. I am sure that they would cook all this up against him for the hell of it. “It would appear that this is nothing more than piling on due to recent media reports,” wrote Shepherd’s attorney, Clarence Roby, Jr. He was indicted in April on charges he helped an unlicensed bond broker, Gwendolyn Joseph Moyo, launder money to conceal her illegal operation of an insurance business. Their trial is scheduled to start in October.
Let us not forget that he was also ordered by a federal magistrate to be confined to his home following his arrest last month on charges he assaulted his girlfriend. He is allowed to leave home for work, church and emergencies. Yep, I bet he found God once more!

Filed under: Derrick Shepherd, Ron Sailor

Investigators Raid Home of Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon

UPDATE

Baltimore Mayor Sheila A. Dixon was charged today by the state prosecutor in a 12-count indictment, becoming the city’s first sitting mayor indicted on criminal offenses.

Dixon was charged with four counts of perjury and two counts of theft over $500, as well as theft under $500, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office. The charges stem in part from gifts she received from former boyfriend and developer Ronald H. Lipscomb, who was also charged earlier this week.

Dixon, a Democrat, has been the target of a nearly three-year probe by State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh into corruption at City Hall, an investigation that has centered on allegations that Dixon has used her office to award lucrative contracts to various people including her sister, her then-boyfriend and her former campaign chairman.

In a statement released by her office this afternoon, Dixon said: “I am being unfairly accused. Time will prove that I have done nothing wrong, and I am confident that I will be found innocent of these charges. … I want to make it clear, though, that I will continue to put all of my energies into running the City of Baltimore during these perilous economic times.” Source: Baltimore Sun

I don’t quite know what to make of this yet, but it seems that many politicians in this country are engaging in highly questionable and sometimes criminal behavior. The latest politician’s house to be raided is Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon’s home. Dale P. Kelberman, Dixon’s attorney, said agents of the state prosecutor’s office issued a search warrant and arrived at the mayor’s Southwest Baltimore home at 6:30 a.m. Dixon was home with her two teenage children at the time. The investigators later took “various documents,” the attorney said in a statement. “We have not yet seen the affidavit in support of the search warrant so we don’t know what was authorized or why,” Kelberman said.

Sterling Clifford, the mayor’s chief spokesman, told the Baltimore Business Journal that he didn’t know why the prosecutors were interested in the contents of Dixon’s home. It was unclear what the prosecutors were looking for inside the brick residence in the Hunting Ridge neighborhood.
The early morning raid is evidence that a widely publicized investigation into City Hall spending has expanded.

In November, state investigators raided the offices of a Dixon supporter, Ronald Lipscomb, president of Doracon Contracting Inc., on Biddle Street. Seized were computers and financial data as part of an ongoing investigation swirling around City Hall. Dixon has attracted the attention of prosecutors during the past two years. The mayor, who previously served as City Council president, was dogged for approving a deal that provided financial compensation to a company that employed her sister, Janice Dixon.

Well, this is really embarrassing and I have to say that no matter how the mayor spins this, your house just doesn’t get raided by the authorities unless they are looking to implicate you in something. So, for her sake and her children’s sakes, I hope she hasn’t done anything criminal. It is nice to see a sister in such a position in the political world. It seems as though a few of our black political leaders, such as Ron Sailor and former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, are in the news for all the wrong reasons. Stay tuned, there will be more to come……

UPDATE

According to the Baltimore Sun, the investigation, which began after a series of articles detailed spending irregularities at City Hall, appears to be wide-ranging, including attempts to look into possible gifts to the mayor. State prosecutors have been seeking Dixon’s fur coats, for instance.

The Sun reported in 2006 that, as City Council president, Dixon voted on contracts that benefited her sister’s employer, Utech. The paper also reported that Dixon’s former campaign chairman, Dale G. Clark, was paid $500,000 over five years to perform computer work for the city without a contract. Clark and Utech founder Mildred Boyer have pleaded guilty to tax charges stemming from the inquiry and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

At least nine subpoenas were served this week on current and former city employees – many of whom worked with Dixon when she was president of the City Council – and those individuals are expected to testify before a grand jury next week.

The subpoena served on Anthony W. McCarthy is the latest since the mayor’s home was raided.
(Sun photo by Algerina Perna / February 14, 2008)

Anthony W. McCarthy, who refused to comment, served as Dixon’s chief of staff for nine months in 1999 and 2000 when she was president of the council. When Dixon became mayor, McCarthy was brought in to oversee communications and is largely credited with softening her image.

According to the Baltimore Sun, he abruptly left the position in November 2007 after revelations that he was being investigated by Baltimore County police. No charges were filed. McCarthy maintained his innocence, but he did not return to his former position in the mayor’s office.

Dixon has remained quiet about the investigation since the raid on her home, saying only that she is cooperating with prosecutors and that she is trying to stay focused on moving the city forward.

I am no lawyer, but if the state prosecutor is examining gifts to the mayor, he might be seeking to prove that Dixon violated ethics rules by not reporting them on financial disclosure forms, that she violated tax laws by not paying taxes on the gifts or that she committed official misconduct related to accepting a bribe in exchange for favorable treatment. I guess you could say that those would be three areas of interest if the authorities are looking for a mink coat. On the same day that investigators raided Dixon’s home, they called the owner of a fur coat company in Timonium to ask whether he was storing Dixon’s two fur coats this year, as he had in the past.

Well, I hope for her sake that her house is “clean” or she will be another mayor with a mess on her hands. Will keep you posted.

Filed under: Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon, Bill Campbell, Ron Sailor

Former Atlanta State Rep. Ron Sailor Pleads Guilty to Fleecing Church

Scumbag extraordinaire, former state representative and pastor Ron Sailor has pleaded guilty to defrauding his church of $250,000. He faces 80 years in prison and a $2.25 million fine. I wrote about this crook when the story first broke about alleged theft to the church. The SOB was corned because his plea, in effect, cancels an agreement he struck in March to assist federal authorities in a corruption investigation in exchange for a lighter sentence. Sailor pleaded guilty to money laundering charges on March 18. As part of his plea agreement, Sailor was ordered to refrain from illegal activity.

On March 11, according to prosecutors, Sailor took out a $250,000 loan. He used his southwest Atlanta church, Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church as collateral. Over the following two weeks, Sailor used $141,386.72 on various personal expenses, including paying debts. Along with the original money laundering charge, Sailor pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. The former Lithonia lawmaker could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison and fined $2.25 million. Sailor has agreed to forfeit all property traceable to his crimes and pay restitution to his victims.

U.S Attorney David Nahmias called Sailor’s actions “disturbing and reprehensible … As a result of his continued criminal conduct, Sailor now faces a much longer prison sentence than originally anticipated.” Nahmias acknowledged that Sailor’s credibility as a federal witness “has been significantly impaired.” But he said the investigation is continuing and that Sailor is obligated to testify if call upon to do so. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 16.

What’s sad is that he took advantage of the church members who looked up to him for guidance and leadership as their pastor. He is truly scum for climbing in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday and telling these people what type of Godly life they should lead, while he was robbing his congregants blind and laundering money. This man was a community leader, as evidenced from the fact that he was a state representative. He now takes his place among a long list of politicians that have engaged in criminal behavior. He also takes his place among a list of preachers, including Bishop Earl Paulk Jr., Jim Baker, among others, who have done criminal things. This is a shame and it really makes people question organized religion today. I hope he’ll serve a big chunk of his life in prison for what he did to so many innocent people.

Filed under: Earl Paulk Jr., Ron Sailor