Risk Update

Conflicts, Confidentiality, and Turkey Legs — Turkey Leg Hut Conflict Alleged, Judicial Clerk Disqualified, Client Confidential Information Meets Attorney Defense

Judge disqualifies chief deputy clerk from practicing in her court” —

  • “Mahoning County [Pennsylvania] Domestic Relations Court Judge Beth Smith issued three judgment entries Tuesday and Wednesday disqualifying Mahoning County Chief Deputy Clerk of Courts Jennifer Ciccone from acting as an attorney in Mahoning County Domestic Relations Court. The entries were filed in divorce cases Ciccone was handling as an attorney.”
  • “All three cases were filed in 2024, with one of them filed in March 2024, one in July 2024 and one in August 2024.”
  • “In her judgment entry, Smith cited a section of Ohio law stating that ‘no clerk of the supreme court or court of common pleas, or the deputy of either, shall practice in the particular court of which that person is clerk or deputy.'”
  • “The entries each state that, ‘In light of such provision, attorney Jennifer Ciccone, serving in the capacity of chief deputy clerk of the Mahoning County Clerk of Courts, is no longer permitted to act as an attorney within this court.’ The entries each state that Ciccone is also ‘immediately disqualified to act as an attorney on behalf of the plaintiff in this case. The trial in this matter shall be (postponed) in order to give the Plaintiff a reasonable period of time to retain substitute legal counsel.'”
  • “The case filed in August had several pretrial hearings last year followed by additional court dates set in January and February and then a hearing March 26. The case had trial dates Monday and Tuesday starting at 1 p.m. each day, but the case was not resolved.”
  • “Don Hepfner, Domestic Relations Court administrator and magistrate, said Wednesday that because the three cases did not get resolved early this week, Judge Smith could not wait any longer and dismissed them. ‘The parties are going to be given the opportunity to find substitute counsel,’ Hepfner said Wednesday.”
  • “Smith said last week she did not allow Ciccone to file any new divorce cases in her court and set strict deadlines for when the last three cases had to be completed.”

David Kluft notes: “If my client accuses me of ineffective assistance, can I use his confidential information to defend myself?” —

  • “A RI lawyer’s former client was convicted of several criminal charges, and the former client claims the lawyer gave him ineffective assistance of counsel. The former client subpoenaed the lawyer to give testimony about his own alleged ineffective assistance.”
  • “The lawyer wants to testify and defend himself, but doesn’t want to violate Rule 1.9(c), which prohibits the use of client information to the lawyer’s advantage.”
  • “The RI Ethics Advisory Panel opines that the lawyer may testify without violating confidentiality rules, because responding to a client’s allegations about the lawyer’s representation is one of the express exceptions to Rule 1.6.”
  • Text of the opinion: here.

Turkey Leg Hut owner wants charges tossed, claims former lawyer helped secure indictment against him” —

  • “Indicted Turkey Leg Hut owner Lyndell Price asked a federal judge to throw out arson charges brought against him last month, arguing his former defense attorney and the FBI violated his civil rights by working together to secure a plea deal with one of his co-defendants.”
  • “In a motion to dismiss filed May 9, Price argued the attorney, Letitia Quinones-Hollins, has a conflict of interest that should quash the entire indictment. Quinones-Hollins didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday. “
  • “The motion is based around Quinones-Hollins, Price and a third man, John Lee Price, whose cooperation with the FBI was central to bringing charges against the restaurateur. John Lee Price was a former employee of Lyndell Price. The men aren’t related.”
  • “Last month, Lynn Price, John Lee Price and two other men were indicted in federal court on charges related to a 2020 fire at Bar 5015, a business down the street from the former Turkey Leg Hut. Lynn Price is accused of hiring a group of men to burn down the bar, which was owned by a business partner with whom he was feuding. John Lee Price and the other men were accused of setting the fire.”
  • “The arson went unsolved for years, until John Lee Price was arrested in Mississippi in 2023 and accused of distributing more than 500 grams of fentanyl.”
  • “After his arrest, John Lee Price spoke to federal agents and told them about his involvement in the arson and its connection to Lynn Price, an FBI agent testified on May 1. John Lee Price pleaded guilty to the drug charge in January and signed an agreement saying he would not ‘knowingly withhold evidence’ and be truthful to the United States.”
    Lynn Price’s challenge to his own indictment likens the plea to a cooperation agreement, and argues that Quinones-Hollins shouldn’t have been a part of it.”
  • “According to Lynn Price, Quinones-Hollins represented him in 2020, on a matter related to ending his probation related to a 2016 tax crime conviction. Federal court records from that case list Quinones-Hollins as Lynn Price’s lead attorney.”
  • “Lynn Price said Quinones-Hollins also acted at his representative some time in 2022 or early 2023, when the FBI attempted to contact him as part of their investigation into the arson. “
  • “Quinones-Hollins began representing John Lee Price on his Mississippi drug charge in January 2024, according to court records. John Lee Price also retained Carl Moore, Quinones-Hollins’ law partner, and one of the former co-owners of the Turkey Leg Hut.”
  • “Lynn Price argued Quinones-Hollins facilitated meetings between the FBI and John Lee Price, which were used to indict and indefinitely detain Lynn Price until a trial.”
  • “‘Attorney Quinones-Hollins failed to protect Mr. Price’s rights when she was made aware of his desire to cooperate against Mr. Price and contacted the government to facilitate a proffer session implicating Mr. Price,’ Lynn Price’s current lawyers wrote.”
  • “Both Quinones-Hollins and the government should have recognized the conflict and tried to avoid it, they wrote. “
  • “Lynn Price’s attorney argued that Quinones-Hollins ‘owed a duty’ to him and violated his rights to effective counsel by favoring one client over another and that her actions led to him being indicted and detained. “
  • “‘Both Mr. Price and John Lee Price paid Attorney Quinones-Hollins to represent them,’ the lawyers wrote. ‘There is no world where anyone can credibly state that Attorney Quinones-Hollins remained loyal to Mr. Price by representing the very person that implicated him in a federal investigation who agreed to cooperate against him at trial.'”