A feud lasting nearly four decades
between a Virginia lawyer and the Virginia State Bar (VSB)
is coming to a head
between a Virginia lawyer and the Virginia State Bar (VSB)
is coming to a head
Rhetta Daniel has been practicing law in Virginia for almost forty years;
from 1982-1990 she worked as an Senior Assistant Bar Counsel for the VSB, prosecuting bad lawyers for them.
These proceedings could lead to the removal of a lawyer’s license to practice law, and as such their ability to continue to practice law.
Daniel said she was pushed out as a the Senior Assistant Bar Counsel in 1990 after it became clear that her aggressive style was not welcome and that the VSB was more interested in protecting connected attorneys than weeding out unscrupulous ones.
The specific case was My Linh Soland, a client who had two powerful lawyers. “What they did was protect her defense counsel.” Daniel said.
She explained that a letter which may have doctored attorney’s letterhead was in the possession of her two
attorneys; when she served them with a subpoenas, issued by former Bar Counsel, Michael L. Rigsby, tor these well-connected lawyers to produce the disputed letterhead, all hell broke loose, so to speak.
She said rather than supporting her, in 1990, Daniel was fired within forty-eight hours after Mr. Ricgsby issued the subpoenas, the Alexandria Circuit Court record was sealed and eventually Soland was prosecuted criminally and sent to prison.
Daniel said since that since 1982, she’s been a constant critic of the VSB.
But now she says the VSB again has its sights set on her, Daniel said she faces a trumped-up hearing ostensibly to challenge her competency.
The Estate of William Wellington Jones
Daniel said the VSB is desperate to remove her from representing her client, Mary Margaret Jones, because Jones is being embezzled from by a connected lawyer, E Grier Ferguson.
Mary Jones’ father was William Wellington Jones, a former domestic relations and general district court judge, in the Suffolk, Virginia, area.
Ferguson is the son of the Judge Jones’ former law partner, and Ferguson is the executor of the Jones Estate and the Trustee for the Jones trust Judge Jones had created in 2006. In 2011 Jones noticed that approximately $30,000 was embezzled from his personal account.
“He (Ferguson) started out raiding the personal funds, on August 11, 2011, he started raiding Judge Jones 'and Mary Margaret Jones' personal funds.” Daniel said. “He made cash transfers from Jones' and her father’s joint bank account on that date and emptied it, approximately $30,000.”
Mary Jones noted that in 2006, at a time unbeknownst to her, Ferguson obtained her father’s power of attorney, that had her father execute a will, and the set-up the trust.
When Jones and his daughter Mary began to investigate, she told me Ferguson issued a veiled threat.
“He told me that if I continued investigating the finances, he’d have my father put into guardianship,” Jones said.
The Guardianship of William Wellington Jones
That’s exactly what happened in 2014, when Ferguson petitioned the court have the elder Jones placed into guardianship.
In so doing, Ferguson was arguing that William Wellington Jones was so incapacitated that he could not take care of his own affairs and the courts would then appoint a guardian to take over.
Ferguson did not respond to an email sent to him at this law firm.
The first hearing was held on November 24, 2014.
Fred Taylor was first appointed the guardian-ad-litem on that day.
Taylor is an attorney, and as a guardian-ad-litem he is supposed to be an independent third party who acts in the ward’s- in this case William Wellington Jones- behalf, but Jones told me she felt he was appointed unnecessarily and was only there to move the guardianship process forward.
Taylor did not respond to a voicemail at his office.
Mary Jones told me she did not learn about the trusts her father set-up until the guardianship unfolded.
William Wellington Jones was moved multiple times. He was living at Seaside Home Healthcare(Rehab) at Atlantic Shores, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
He was moved to Bay Point Kindred Care in October 2014 before being moved again to James River Convalescent Center in Newport News, Virginia.
It was all part of a hectic process to gain control of the elder’s multi-million-dollar estate.
From June 2014-October 2014, there was a battle to force her father to take mind altering drugs while he was living at the Seaside Home Healthcare Rehabilitation Center.
“My father told the administrator and staff that he is not in pain and didn't want any mind-altering drugs.” Jones said “I tell them, too, and give them my Medical Directive. I tell them Ferguson only has a Power-of-Attorney for my father.
“It wasn't long before the Seaside Staff starting (sic) drugging my father against his wishes and mine. The administrator who lived in Suffolk, admitted in writing to doing it in documents that are filed with the Suffolk Circuit Court. Physical therapy starts at the facility to help my father regain his strength, and then it is abruptly stopped even though my father and I want therapy to continue and we both make it known that PT should continue.”
An email to the facility was left unreturned.
At the time, Ferguson, Jones told me, only had a power of attorney while she had the medical directive, which gave her full control to make medical decisions.
She had her father moved from Seaside in October.
She and her father also did these five things she told me.
- Friday Oct 31, 2014: My father signed a durable power of attorney (POA) for me to have and signed several separate original revocations of Ferguson's POA.
- Nov 5, 2014: My father signed another durable POA that is more detailed for me to have.
- Nov 10, 2014: My father signed letter firing Ferguson and his law firm "in any and all matters", notarized.
- Nov 10, 2014: My father signed a new will, before 2 impartial witnesses and a notary.
- Nov 13, 2014: My father signed a revocation of the trust which was notarized.
That set off the guardianship battle; he was moved again as part of that process.
While in a subsequent convalescent hospital, Jones said at least three attempts were made to have her father drugged again.
- James River Rehab Staff administered the 1st mind-altering drug saying it's an appetite simulate, but my father was eating and had a good appetite without this drug and he was not losing any weight
- A few days prior to the scheduled mental capacity evaluation date, I visit my father, and I find my father in a comatose condition which was the result of the 2nd known administration of a mind-altering drug to my father in this Assisted Living Facility, James River Rehab.
- The 3rd administration of a mind-altering drug by James River Rehab was the one that caused me to insist that my father be transported immediately to the hospital on Jan 12, 2015, when I found my father comatose again.
Her father died on January 26, 2015.
Enter Rhetta Daniel
Daniel said she entered the case in September 2016.
She said that the court system has allowed Ferguson to effectively ruin Mary Jones’ life.
Ferguson has been the power of attorney, the trustee, and the executor/trustee of the estate and trust. He controls all the money and only shares what he wants with Jones.
She said one of the first things Daniel did in September 2016 was subpoena all the trust/escrow and business accounts for the law firm, bank records for all those escrow and business accounts, and issued a subpoena for
Ferguson’s personal account.
Ferguson has had a judge in his pocket the entire time; that judge’s name is Judge John Daffron. Judge Daffron would not allow Mary Margaret Jones' subpoenas to move forward.
He did not quash subpoenas, but he "suspended "them.
As a result, Daniel explained that this is not a final ruling and as such, it could not be appealed.
The Judge has been coy in his handling of the subpoenas.
Here’s part of an interaction from a court hearing, over a year after the subpoenas were issued, on October 23, 2017.
Daffron was addressing Daniel when he noted of the subpoenas: "Because there will come a time, perhaps, when all of that should be presented."
Daniel responded, "Well, the time has come."
Daffron retorted, "Well, you have not reached that threshold yet." "Sir?" Daniel said.
"You haven't reached that threshold," Daffron concluded.
Later, in the same hearing, Daffron even stated: “here is an issue strongly raised by Miss Daniel about the subpoena for the trust account. That is a legitimate issue. I have suspended the action on that subpoena so far.
I say, again, there may be a time where that has to be turned over to fully reconcile the account as defendant --
I'm sorry as the plaintiff's sees it.”
Daniel said Daffron has presided over the trust, the estate, and the guardianship. Daffron is retired though he maintains a semi-retired schedule.
He could not be reached, and the Virginia court system declined to comment. With her hands tied, Daniel is unable to discern how much has been embezzled.
The VSB Star Chamber
But having a judge interfere with the enforcement of the subpoenas was not enough, because now on
April 9, 2018, Daniel faces the VSB in a related hearing against her alone.
The VSB is not accusing her of misconduct but rather filed a spurious Petition claiming Daniel is impaired
and so can’t continue being an attorney.
Daniel said that this is the only way they can remove her from representing Jones.
According to a March 2018 blog post in Justice for All Virginia, this hearing is nothing more than a star chamber proceeding.
“On April 09, 2018 at 9:00 am, the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board has scheduled a hearing for based on a frivolous impairment petition against Rhetta Moore Daniel Esquire, with no medical evidence to support the position of the Virginia State Bar.
“The 37 page Petition filed by the VSB is requesting the VSB Disciplinary Board to determine if Ms. Daniel’s license to practice law should be suspended is an unusual one because Ms. Daniel’s attorneys have provided
the Virginia State Bar prosecutor and the VSB Disciplinary Board more than enough medical reports to prove that Ms. Daniel has no impairments at all, much less any that would affect her ability to practice law.”
The Virginia State Bar is proceeding despite evaluations from her long-time physicians.
“I have a Psychiatric Evaluation Report from a highly qualified local psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott J. Spanier, which states I have no mental or emotional impairments at all and I am completely fit to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia and have been for the past 30 or so years that he has known and seen me as a patient from time to time because I had to take care of my mother and at times my sister who both needed intermittent intervention and care,” Daniel said in an email to the VSB on March 1, 2018.
A call to the VSB was left unreturned
E. Grier Ferguson's brother, C. Phillips Ferguson, is an elected member of the VSB Council; he was first elected in 2016 and shall serve through 2019 and Phil Ferguson is the Commonwealth's Attorney for Suffolk, Virginia, where Mary Margaret Jones lives
Grier Ferguson was an elected member of the VSB Council in 2000 and served on the VSB Council with Karen Gould, the current Virginia State Bar Executive Director.
Written By: Michael Volpe has been a freelance investigative journalist since 2009. In 2013, he gave the keynote address at the Eugene V Katz Award sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies. Since 2013, he's been widely recognized as a leading figure in exposing judicial abuse and corruption, especially in divorce and guardianship. A 2016 investigation of a bogus guardianship of former Army Ranger Martin Patterson led to Patterson being released from guardianship. A 2015 investigation of a bogus change of custody in Rockland County led to the first serious investigation of abuse's throughout that county's court by he and others in the Rockland County Times.. Volpe has also made significant contributions to the Tsimhoni kids, who were reunited with their mother after their father falsely accused her of parental alienation. Volpe was the only journalist to expose the the judge in the Tsimhoni case, Lisa Gorcyca, engaging in abuse in numerous other cases. Volpe is the author of four books including Bullied to Death: Chris Mackney's Kafkaesque Divorce which exposes the Virginia Court corruption, his latest, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki and the World's Last Custody Trial
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