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Mequon lawyer faces second public reprimand

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//July 3, 2017//

Mequon lawyer faces second public reprimand

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//July 3, 2017//

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A Mequon lawyer is facing his second public reprimand in five years over allegations that he lied to a client and a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint on Tuesday charging Vladimir Gorokhovsky of Gorokhovsky Law Office with two counts of misconduct stemming from three cases in which the State Public Defender’s Office had appointed him to represent James Earl Davidson of Milwaukee.

The OLR alleges Gorokhovsky lied to Davidson in order to intimidate him into accepting a plea deal in two of the cases and lied to Judge Jeffrey Kremers during the plea hearing.

Kremers removed Gorokhovsky from the case after the attorney admitted to lying to Davidson so he would accept a plea in the property-damage and bail-jumping cases, according to the complaint.

The OLR alleges that, during Davidson’s plea hearing, Kremers asked Davidson whether he had been promised anything or was intimidated into accepting the prosecutor’s plea offer. When Davidson said, “Not exactly,” Kremers questioned him further, according to the complaint.

Davidson revealed that Gorokhovsky first told Davidson he would withdraw from representing him if Davidson did not accept the offer. In a later meeting, Gorokhovsky told Davidson that Kremers would give him the maximum sentence if Davidson rejected the plea and lost at trial.

When Kremers asked Gorokhovsky about the second meeting, Gorokhovsky said at first that he did not recall saying that Kremers would give Davidson the maximum sentence. But when Kremers pressed him further, Gorokhovsky admitted that he had said that, according to the complaint.

Reached on Thursday afternoon, Gorokhovsky, who has been admitted to practice in Wisconsin since 2002, declined to comment on the complaint. He has 21 days to respond to the complaint.

Gorokhovsky’s law license is in good standing, according to the State Bar and Office of Lawyer Regulation websites.

But this is not his first run-in with the OLR. Gorokohovsky’s license was suspended for 60 days in 2013 for two counts of misconduct, including battery and disorderly conduct charges related to the alleged domestic abuse of his wife and lies told to an Illinois circuit court judge. The Wisconsin Supreme Court publicly reprimanded him in 2012 and privately reprimanded him in 2009.

Gorokhovsky earned his law degree in 2001 from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

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