A Broward attorney of over 50 years denies misappropriating $15,200 of clients’ money
In a law career that started between the Miami Dolphins’ two 1970s Super Bowl wins, Hallandale Beach attorney Roger Davis said he’d never even faced a grievance committee before current accusations that he misappropriated $15,229.
Starting May 22, Davis will be under suspension.
The state Supreme Court granted the Florida Bar’s petition for emergency suspension last week, a petition that included two grievances. Judge James Sherman of the 15th Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach has been appointed referee in the case.
Davis, 76, said the Bar got all his accounts frozen Tuesday. He figures he “p----- off” the wrong person and both issues originally were filed with the Attorney Consumer Assistance Program, a Florida Bar program that allows consumers to settle issues of attorney conduct without making an official Bar complaint.
“The first instance which spans 45 years, was dismissed with the indication that there was no disciplinary or ethical violation,” Davis said. “The second complaint was completely cleared in Tallahassee, then filed anew with the Florida Bar office in Fort Lauderdale.”
Davis joined the Bar on Oct. 18, 1973. He met William Storen almost three years later.
William Storen
Davis said Storen was a walk-in client to Davis’ downtown Miami office in 1976 who refused to be represented by Davis’ partner because the partner was Black. Davis became the 26-year-old Storen’s legal guardian that year.
The Bar petition says Davis lost contact with Storen, who had been declared a man Davis described as a “dangerous paranoid schizophrenic” who had been declared disabled. Storen died Jan. 9, 2018.
The Bar complaint says Davis learned about Storen’s death in 2019 from Susan Capri, Storen’s niece, when he inquired to Storen’s family about him.
In a phone interview with the Miami Herald, Davis said he’d agreed with Capri to take a third of the money in Storen’s account as attorney’s fees. But after a disagreement when Capri asked for accounting records, Capri filed a Bar complaint and Davis said he told her he was taking her whole end and “going to distribute it to worthy causes.”
The Bar petition says Davis “refused to give Capri an accounting of funds held on Storen’s behalf” so Capri filed the complaint.
The Florida Bar said as of May 13, 2019, there was $13,933 in the account that Davis kept for Storen’s money.
That money remained there plus “nominal interest” until May 25, 2022, the Bar petition said. That day, according to the Bar’s Lead Staff Auditor Carl Totaro, there was a $5,000 transfer from the Storen account to Davis’ personal account and a Zelle payment of $1,000 to Galetti Keith.
Six days later, the Bar petition said, there was an online transfer to Davis’ personal account, and on June 7, 2022, a Zelle payment, each for $1,000. On June 23, a Tele-Transfer moved $2,200 from the Storen account to Davis’ trust account. That same day, a $3,500 check from Davis trust account was cashed “payable to Roger B. Davis.”
Three online transfers of $1,000 each came out of the Storen account on June 28, June 29 and July 1, 2022. A Zelle disbursement of $500 wen to a “Downing Mary” with the order to “Use in Good Health.” By Sept. 16, 2022, the account balance sat at $102.94.
Only one of the last seven transfers from the Storen account exceeded $300, but the final total was $13,837. The Bar auditor said at least $9,630 of that went to Davis’ personal account.
The Bar petition says Davis claimed that money counted as his attorney’s fees and said he even included them in his gross taxable income, but has “not provided evidence to support those funds were his earned attorney’s fees.”
Also, the Bar said Davis didn’t file an annual accounting in his guardianship for Storen from 2014 through 2018.
Miami Motors’ money
The matter of the other $1,392 involves Miami Motors, a company run by Henry Rose in the Country Walk area of Kendall. The Bar petition says Rose paid Davis $350 up front, but they never had a fee agreement. Rose claimed Davis didn’t come across with all of Rose’s part of $3,500 after the case settled in 2023.
Davis, the Bar petition says, didn’t put the settlement check in his trust account on March 21, 2023, but in his personal account, mixing business and personal money. By March 31, the Bar petition says, Davis’ personal account was down to $182.90 after Davis made payments to Citibank, American Express, Capital One, Target and Florida Power & Light.
Davis did pay Rose $1,575, the Bar says, from his trust account over four payments from April 10 through May 4. But that plus the $182.90, by the Bar’s math, still leaves Davis $1,392.10 short.
Also, “one cannot use client money received today for an attorney’s personal purposes banking on it being replaced in time for a client payment in the future,” the Bar said.
