NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Penny Wise, Impounded Car Foolish
For three years, NY attorney Mark Pomerantz forged the registration sticker on his car by cutting out numbers from the sticker on his wife's car and affixing them to his sticker to show an inaccurate expiration date. He saved himself a fee of about $140 every two years, but bought a heap of trouble, reports New York Law Journal:
Nassau County police stopped Pomerantz on March 21, 2007, and impounded his car as a result of several motor vehicle infractions including driving with a suspended license and failure to answer a traffic summons. Pomerantz admitted his car had lacked insurance for 18 months and that it had not been registered or inspected. The police then discovered the altered registration sticker, which Pomerantz had been using since February 2004.
Pomerantz was first charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second and third degrees, a class D felony and a class A misdemeanor, respectively.
A felony conviction is automatic grounds for disbarment, according to New York State Judiciary Law. But in October 2007, Pomerantz pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted criminal possession of a forged instrument, a class B misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and fined $660.
Because he failed to report his conviction to the First Department of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division or to his employer, the disciplinary panel recommended a three-month suspension for the Mintz & Gold litigation associate. Pomerantz, who had represented himself, blamed his wife's illness, "marital turmoil" and financial troubles for his actions.
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