slotbet A Florida attorney denied his sexual texts to a juvenile court client. She had receipts
A teen mother trying to fight to keep her child got these text messages from her lawyerslotbet, aged in his late 50s to early 60s.
“I want you to be my woman and I want your (vagina) little girl.” “Show me a little of what’s mine.”
That’s just two of the texts Andrew Russ, licensed to practice in Florida and Ohio, sent to this Juvenile Division client in Ohio’s Muskingum County. Russ didn’t admit to any of the texts, flat out denied them, in fact, as he said the client lied. But Russ, born in 1961, clearly didn’t understand his client’s generation saves text messages the way his generation saved comic books or baseball cards.
And, when the former put all her text message cards on the table, Russ got suspended in Ohio for two years and, in a reciprocal action, disbarred in Florida.
Russ had been a member of the Florida Bar since Sept. 25, 2003. At one time, a database said, he lived in Wellington and worked in Fort Lauderdale.
Meanwhile, Russ was also licensed in Ohio and worked out Pickerington, a suburb of Columbus. In Ohio, he’d be appointed to be the lawyer for Client 1 in Muskingum County Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division.
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“I think we have that daddy/daughter dynamic going on”Client 1’s daughter was fighting to keep custody of her daughter.
Judge Jonathan Eric Sjostrom, the referee in the Florida discipline case, wrote in his referee’s report, “(Client 1) was a vulnerable client because (a) she was a young mother facing the possibility of losing custody of her child due to the child testing positive for the presence of fentanyl at birth; (b) because she had a mental health disorder; and (c) because she did not have the support of her parents.”
Russ began texting and speaking his inappropriate desires to Client 1. Among them, from Ohio’s Board of Professional Conduct via Sjostrom’s referee’s report:
“I’m interested in a relationship with you.”
“I want you.”
“I think we have that daddy/daughter dynamic going on.”
“As afar (sic) as time with you I can send (sic) considerable time not a problem with as dating/spending time and I’m sexually attracted to you.”
“BTW you have a nice body can’t wait to get my hands all over it.”
“I want you to be my woman and I want your (vaginia) little girl.” “Show me a little of what’s mine.”
“Let me be your BF.”
“I have a confession: I have always wanted a young GF about the age of my daughter where we have the daddy/daughter dynamic in and out of the bedroom.”
“I kinda like the idea of treating you lovingly like a girlfriend/daughter and that is a big turn on for me sexually.”
It wasn’t a big turn on to Client 1, who told her child’s father, “My attorney is a creep. And I’m stuck with him....”
Client 1 also told her child’s guardian ad litem — an attorney appointed by the court to represent the child’s best interests in the family law proceedings — about Russ’ wildly inappropriate behavior. The guardian ad litem filed a grievance with Ohio’s Disciplinary Counsel.
When Russ got a Letter of Inquiry from the Disciplinary Counsel, his response included: “I did not send sexually inappropriate text messages as Mr. Wagner alleged in his [the guardian ad litem] grievance.”
Also, Russ wrote “I believe that, due to his inexperience, Mr. Wagner was misled by (Client 1) somehow in an attempt by her to either: gain leverage in her case; gain favor with the guardian ad litem so he would make a more favorable recommendation; or because she blamed me somehow for the failure of settlement with the result that the child was not going to be placed with her.”
When the Disciplinary Counsel talked to Russ, he learned Client 1 had turned over the text messages.
“In the Ohio allegations and orders, they described the client as vulnerable, which is an understatement in my view, in a dependency case,” Sjostrom’s referee’s report said. “What we ask of parents in dependency is that they put aside any distractions and focus on the tasks put to them to try and put their family back together.
“One of the most direct, most important resources that we give parents in dependency, is a lawyer...Outside of criminal cases, it is really the only place where we appoint free lawyers; and so, there’s a special vulnerability of a parent in a dependency case.”
Sjostrom recommended the same punishment Russ received in Ohio, a two-year suspension. The Florida Supreme Court agreed with everything in Sjostrom’s report except the punishment suggestion.
Russ was disbarred in Florida.slotbet