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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission brings charges against attorneys who have violated the state’s rules for admission to the bar and Rules of Professional Conduct. The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications brings charges against judges, judicial officers, or judicial candidates for misconduct. Details of attorneys’ and judges’ actions for which they are being disciplined by the Supreme Court will be included unless they are not a matter of public record under the court’s rules.
Suspension
Thomas E.Q. Williams, of Hancock County, has been suspended by the Indiana Supreme Court for two years without automatic reinstatement for charging an unreasonable attorney fee to an elderly client, converting funds belonging to the client, and related misconduct. The July 27, 2012, order says Williams also denied under oath that the funds he took from the client as her attorney were in fact for legal services after stating under oath in a prior civil suit that they were for attorney fees.
His suspension begins Sept. 7 and the costs of the proceeding are assessed against Williams. Justices Frank Sullivan and Mark Massa believed that Williams should have been disbarred.
Cecelia M. K. Hemphill, of Morgan County, has been suspended for at least six months without automatic reinstatement, per an Aug. 1, 2012, order. The justices found she violated Indiana Professional Conduct Rule 8.4(d) by failing to abide by the orders and procedures of the divorce court and a CHINS order and instead substituted her own judgment for that of the courts. Hemphill wanted to investigate whether the child of B.T. made up a story that her mother’s boyfriend touched her so she could live with B.T. Hemphill picked up B.T.’s children from school to speak with them alone, eventually took the children to have dinner with father, and then got lost trying to find a birthday party one of the children was to attend. She had the children for nearly six hours before dropping them off at the mother’s home.
Her suspension begins Sept. 7, and the costs of the proceeding are assessed against her.•
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