HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Roger Barry Davis has spent more than five decades practicing law in South Florida. But the Hallandale Beach lawyer’s ability to do so has been taken away on an emergency basis after a Florida Bar investigation found that he “misappropriated client funds.”
That includes, according to the Bar, spending more than $13,000 of funds of a man he served as a guardian for most of his career — about four years after that man had died.
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The Florida Bar announced Davis’ suspension on Tuesday. He was admitted to the bar on Oct. 18, 1973 and his offices are located at 136 Golden Isles Drive, according to his profile on the Florida Bar website.
According to an emergency suspension petition, filed by the Bar on April 5, the allegations against Davis stem from two cases.
The first case revolves around a client named William Frances Storen, according to the petition.
Investigators said Davis had served as Storen’s guardian since around 1976. He had lost touch with Storen in May 2019 and the man’s niece told him he had died about a year prior and “requested an accounting of any funds (he) was holding on Storen’s behalf,” the documents state.
Instead, an audit found that Davis spent $13,837 of Storen’s funds over four months in 2022, four years after the man died, for Davis’ “personal benefit and for the benefit of others.”
Davis, the petition states, “claimed those funds were his earned attorney fees,” but did not provide any evidence to support the assertion. The auditor found that Davis also “failed to file an annual accounting (from) 2014 to 2018″ as required.
“The evidence is clear and convincing” that Davis misappropriated funds, the petition states. It also states that he made “material misrepresentations” to Storen’s niece and her attorney regarding the funds held in Storen’s account.
The other case involves a client’s $3,500 settlement against Volkswagen, the petition states.
The auditor found that Davis, instead of depositing money into a trust account, put it in his personal account and spent more than $3,300 in settlement proceeds for his “own benefit.”
According to the Florida Bar, Davis paid the client $1,575 from a “new source of funds” unrelated to the settlement, essentially conducting a Ponzi scheme.
“One cannot use client money received today for an attorney’s personal purposes banking on it being replaced in time for a client payment in the future,” the petition states. “That is the very essence of a ‘Ponzi scheme.’”
Local 10 News left Davis a voicemail message seeking comment Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear whether he will be criminally investigated or charged in the matter.
Davis responded Wednesday denying any wrongdoing and claimed he’d been “set up.”
“I didn’t steal anything,” he said. “I didn’t run a Ponzi scheme.”
He later added that he was “wrongfully accused” and said, “I’m technically guilty, but I admitted all of it.”
Davis said he hasn’t decided whether to fight the allegations.
A Florida Bar spokesperson said the order becomes effective May 22 after a 30-day period to “wind down and cease the practice of law.”
“The lawyer remains suspended thereafter until further order,” the spokesperson said.
Petition for suspension:
Suspension order: