Mar 15, 2017 3 min read

A state Supreme Court panel Wednesday ordered that Cecil attorney and former state representative Jesse White be placed on emergency temporary suspension over allegations he breached rules of conduct, misappropriating nearly $100,000 in money clients had entrusted to him.

The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court said White’s “continued practice of law is causing immediate and substantial public or private harm because of his misappropriation of entrusted client funds and other egregious conduct in manifest violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.”

The disciplinary board said White’s suspension will take effect April 14. Rachel Nusinov, an administrative assistant with the board, said its Office of Disciplinary Counsel will file a petition to have White disciplined. It is also possible White and the office could reach an agreement for “discipline on consent,” she said.

A petition from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel states five clients entrusted White with a total of $118,298 between December 2015 and late November of last year. White deposited those funds into a professional trust account in his name. As of Dec. 30, the account was drawn down to $12,954 because of payments “unrelated to his entrustments,” the petition said.

The office alleged White misappropriated the remaining $105,344. However, once the office adjusted its tally of the funds entrusted to White and accounted for additional funds in the trust, it put the amount of the deficiency at $96,446 as of Jan. 18.

White’s attorney, Amy Coco, wrote in a filing seeking to block the temporary suspension that her client had “sought help for a pathological gambling addiction” and placed himself on a list for exclusion from state casinos.

State authorities took the step of asking the court for White’s emergency suspension when he refused to tender his voluntary resignation from the state bar, according to the state’s filing.

“Jesse advised (the disciplinary office) that he was not ruling out a voluntary resignation but could not consent at that time based on the advice of his therapist,” Coco’s response states.

White also disputed the disciplinary office’s figures for the discrepancy in the trust account. Coco wrote, “Jesse has replaced most of the funds in the (trust) account and he has a check en route that was issued February 23, such that he will likely have the deficiency cured within one week.”

Coco wrote White had taken steps to make sure money in the account would be handled properly, including making it accessible only by check and two signatures, instead of allowing electronic tranfers.

White did not immediately return a call placed to his cellphone seeking comment. The phone at his law office in McDonald was temporarily disconnected late in the afternoon but was back in operation later in the day.

Coco wasn’t immediately available for comment late Wednesday.

White, a Democrat, held the House seat in the 46th Legislative District from 2007 to 2015. He lost a re-election bid in 2014 to Republican Jason Ortitay.

His defeat followed revelations the year before that he had created false personas on various websites, using them to attack constituents, colleagues and the natural gas industry.

White’s filing in the disciplinary case states he made “powerful enemies” in his political career and was under heightened scrutiny from the media. Coco wrote the temporary suspension would make White’s family, office and clients the subjects of “intense and unwanted media attention” if it became public.

The disciplinary office called the question of publicity “irrelevant” in a subsequent filing.