Pasco lawyer disbarred over account withdrawals

Pasco lawyer disbarred over account withdrawals


By TODD LESKANIC
The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 02, 2011
NEW PORT RICHEY --

A Wesley Chapel lawyer has been disbarred after the state's high court agreed that she improperly withdrew more than $100,000 from an account belonging to her mentally impaired brother.

Denise Letizia, 53, declined to comment today, citing pending civil litigation in Hillsborough County Circuit Court involving similar allegations. Her attorney in that case, Kendall Almerico, couldn't be reached for comment.

The Florida Supreme Court ordered Letizia disbarred in August and denied her request for a rehearing in an order dated Oct. 24. She also was ordered to pay $5,694.28 to the Florida Bar for legal costs.

Letizia was admitted to the Bar in 1993.
The high court affirmed the report of a referee who found that Letizia violated Bar rules governing attorney competence and integrity. The core allegation was that she signed an affidavit she knew to be false in order to withdraw the money in her brother's account.

The withdrawal occurred at a Bank of America in Land O' Lakes on March 23, 2005. Marvin Letizia, who was mildly retarded and suffered from major depression, had granted his sister power of attorney in May 2004.

The siblings' mother had taken care of her son until that point, but her fading health led to Denise Letizia taking over the responsibility.

At some point, however, the Florida Department of Children & Families received a complaint and Marvin Letizia was removed from the Wesley Chapel home he shared with his mother. A guardianship proceeding began as a result of the removal.

Tampa attorney Herb Fiss represented Marvin Letizia in the guardianship action.

In order to withdraw her brother's money, Denise Letizia signed an affidavit stating her power of attorney was "in full force and effect." The pending guardianship, however, made that statement false. Letizia knew it, but signed anyway, court documents state.

In August 2005, a judge appointed Karen O. Patterson as Marvin Letizia's guardian. Patterson continued as guardian until Marvin's death in October 2010.

At a Bar hearing in June 2010, Denise Letizia testified that she withdrew the money in cash and returned to her car, where her mother was waiting. She testified she drove her mother to a hospital, where they met her father and an Austrian couple who were friends of her parents.

Letizia testified she left the money with her parents, who gave it to the Austrian couple to invest in European property. She testified she never saw the money again and doesn't know what happened to it.

Her story conflicted with one she gave during guardianship hearings in 2005, court documents state.

In a final report, the Bar referee called Letizia's accounts of what happened to the money "at best, unverified to, at worst, absurd."

Patterson is the plaintiff in the pending lawsuit against Letizia. Fiss is Patterson's attorney. Neither could be reached for comment today.

Letizia was admonishment by the Bar in 2005 for failing to provide a client with competent representation and for failing to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.

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http://www2.tbo.com/news/pasco-news/2011/nov/02/pasco-lawyer-disbarred-over-account-withdrawals-ar-300173/