Criminal Judge Questions Competency of Lawyer Who Advised Clients to Break Into Foreclosed Homes
Corrected: A judge is questioning whether a suspended California lawyer who has advised some clients to break into their foreclosed homes and is now facing criminal prosecution is competent to stand trial.
Judge Runston Maino appointed counsel for attorney Michael T. Pines, 59, who is defending himself pro se and scheduled a hearing later this week on whether to require a mental evaluation, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“They’re trying to get more time because they realized they have no case,” Pines told the newspaper today, calling the judge’s move in the San Diego County case a “delay tactic.”
There is a personal injury attorney named Michael Pines in California who is also an attorney in his 50s but not the defendant in this case, the article notes.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Suspended Attorney Is Criminally Charged, Along with Elderly Client, in Another Foreclosed Home Case”
Correction
Updated on Sept. 6 to correct the name of personal injury attorney Michael Pines.
