Suspended Green Bay attorney’s reinstatement request denied (UPDATE)

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A Green Bay attorney whose license has been suspended since 2003 cannot practice law again because he has yet to pay all of the restitution he owes to former clients, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

Jevon Jaconi petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate his license in August 2013, saying that he had satisfied all the requirements. But the court, in its per curiam decision, disagreed, pointing out that Jaconi has still yet to pay all of the restitution from 2003 and that he has not provided a good reason why he did not do so.

Jaconi told the Supreme Court that of the restitution he was ordered to pay, he still owed $7,500 to the Wisconsin Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection. However, a referee assigned to the case noted that Jaconi also still owed $500 to a former client.

“The referee found that Attorney Jaconi had the means to make restitution and, by Attorney Jaconi’s own admission, financial difficulties did not prevent him from doing so,” according to the court’s decision.

The court also ordered Jaconi to pay $4,691.38 for the cost of the proceeding.

Jaconi’s license was suspended for a year in 2003 after he stipulated to 20 counts of misconduct that stemmed from his fumbling of several criminal cases and a divorce proceeding for seven clients. According to the Supreme Court’s decision from that year, Jaconi repeatedly ignored clients, failed to refund client money and failed to adequately explain the proceedings of cases to the people he was representing.

READ OUR RELATED CASE DIGEST

In one case, Jaconi was representing a client in a drunken driving case and pleaded no contest on behalf of his client for an operating while intoxicated charge. The client had specifically told Jaconi that she did not want to plead, according to the Supreme Court’s decision.

At the time, the court said Jaconi committed “serious violations.”

Jaconi graduated from the University of Dayton School of Law in 1998 and was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin the same year.

Jaconi did not immediately provide a statement or response when reached Tuesday. His attorney, Mark Hazelbaker of Kasieta Legal Group LLC, Madison, said he and his client expect to clear up the issues surrounding restitution and repetition for reinstatement by early next year.

He questioned, though, why his client received as severe of a punishment as he did and yet an attorney such as former Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz only received a four-month suspension after sending racy text messages to a domestic abuse victim Kratz was representing. He also pointed out that there are many convicted felons still practicing law, including former state Sen. Gary George, who Hazelbaker also represented, yet the Office of Lawyer Regulation is vigorously prosecuting Jaconi.

“[My client’s] imperfections are not greater than many people practicing law today,” Hazelbaker said.

Jaconi was also publicly reprimanded in 2005 for not clearly explaining his fee for his services. Follow @eheisigWLJ