Two San Diego attorneys have been disbarred following separate criminal allegations, the State Bar of California announced Tuesday.
According to a State Bar news release, Elliot Adler and Kelly DuFord Williams’ disbarments were effective last Friday.
Williams, who ran Slate Law Group in San Diego, was disbarred after the State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel found she misappropriated funds her clients received in settlements and made two false police reports against an ex-boyfriend.
The State Bar alleges that she misappropriated over $104,000 from settlement funds awarded to two clients.
Criminal charges stemming from that alleged misconduct were filed against Williams in March, but she is not in custody and has not been arraigned. A spokeswoman from the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said “the case remains in arrest warrant status” and further comment could not be provided because it is a pending case.
According to the criminal complaint, Williams is charged with eight felony counts of grand theft and one count of check forgery. While the State Bar’s release references over $104,000 taken from two victims, a declaration in support of an arrest warrant filed in Williams’ criminal case mentions more than $400,000 allegedly misappropriated from eight victims.
Along with the misappropriation allegations, Williams was accused by the State Bar of making false allegations against an ex-boyfriend.
Court documents from the State Bar’s case against Williams state she called police in Utah and claimed to be a San Diego prosecutor seeking assistance for her niece’s child. She claimed she received a text message from her niece that made her believe there was an “emergent situation” regarding the child, but the claims turned out to be unfounded, according to the State Bar of California, which said the false police reports were made “because she was upset with someone she was dating.”
She also faced another allegation that she had a person appear in court as an attorney on behalf of her law firm, despite that person not being licensed to practice law in California.
Adler pleaded guilty in federal court to taking part in a tax fraud scheme orchestrated by former Chabad of Poway Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein. The scheme involved Goldstein accepting charitable donations, then sending about 90% of the funds back to the donors, while pocketing the remainder for himself.
Prosecutors said donors would then falsely claim on tax forms that 100% of their donations went to Chabad, with Goldstein providing the false donors with fake receipts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Adler was a purported donor from at least 2010 until 2018, allowing him to reduce his personal income tax liability by about $500,000.
He was sentenced last year to just over a year in prison.