Opinion ID: 1296747
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jones trust fund

Text: Fullwood was a co-trustee of a trust the beneficiary of which was Trevor Jones, a minor. The conservator and other co-trustee was Aleta Jones, Trevor's mother. The trust was created on or about December 2, 1988 from the proceeds of a settlement in connection with a life insurance policy on the life of Stephen Wayne Jones, Trevor's father. The settlement was for $59,000, of which $19,666 was Fullwood's attorney fee as approved by the probate court. The remaining amount, $33,565.50, constituted the corpus of the trust and was deposited in an interest-bearing account at Lexington State Bank. Fullwood and Aleta Jones were to co-sign all checks written from that account. Under the terms of the trust, Aleta Jones, as conservator, was ordinarily limited to a $250 monthly disbursement from the trust fund. The probate court could approve other expenditures for Trevor's benefit, but such expenditures generally had to be for education, medical care, and clothing. In September 1989, Fullwood began to raid the trust and to convert trust funds to his personal use. Specifically, between September 1989 and December 1989, Fullwood converted approximately $27,700 of the trust corpus. In so doing, Fullwood forged Aleta Jones's signature on several checks. The matter concerning the Trevor Jones Fund finally was brought to the attention of the Board in September 1994. Thomas Quinn, a special investigator for the Attorney General's office, was able to trace $27,700 of misappropriation by Fullwood. Fullwood paid back some of the money prior to the hearing. However, evidence at the hearing established that Fullwood still owed the trust approximately $16,030. [2] Evidence presented at the hearing also established that Fullwood filed false accountings with the probate court. On the June 1990 accounting for the trust, Fullwood forged the signature of a customer service representative from Lexington State Bank, where the trust funds were held. Fullwood also had an accountant write a letter to the probate court recommending the (largely nonexistent) trust funds be placed in a secure education funding account underwritten with low-risk bonds. At the time she wrote the letter, the accountant did not know Fullwood had raided the trust and misappropriated funds. We find Fullwood violated former Rule DR 9-102, which required him to maintain and account for the integrity of a separate client trust fund, as well as former Rules DR 1-102(A)(3), (4), and (5), by fraudulently converting funds to his own use, in a manner prejudicial to the administration of justice. By filing the false accounting with the probate court and then continuing to file accountings in the following years, Fullwood perpetrated a fraud on the court, in violation of Rules 8.4(c), (d), and (e) of the current Rules of Professional Conduct. Finally, Fullwood's sponsoring of the accountant's opinion letter constituted a violation of Rule 3.3(a)(4), RPC, which prohibits an attorney from offering to a tribunal evidence known to the attorney to be false.