Grundy Attorney Disbarred For Embezzlement

The Virginia State Bar has revoked the license of a Grundy, Va., attorney who improperly pocketed at least $200,000 over two years from the trust accounts of an estate he managed, according to State Bar documents.

The attorney, David Eugene Cecil, 58, also has been criminally charged in Buchanan County General District Court with embezzlement, court records show.

The State Bar on Tuesday announced the revocation – the most severe sanction it can levy – after the Disciplinary Board heard the case Sept. 25. The State Bar charged Cecil with numerous violations of its rules regarding the safekeeping of property, communication with clients, charging of reasonable fees and misconduct in general.

Cecil was arrested Aug. 3, after the Virginia State Police conducted its own investigation. He is accused of embezzling $120,000 from an estate he administered between February 2007 and March 2008, according to the charging document filed by Special Agent Marcus McClanahan.

Efforts to reach Cecil on Tuesday were unsuccessful. His defense attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The disciplinary case against Cecil grew out of his handling of the estate of a Buchanan County doctor, Robert Baxter, and Baxter’s wife, Nancy. The criminal complaint does not name the estate, but derives from the same period of time that the State Bar investigated.

In 2007, Cecil met with three of Baxters’ four daughters, telling them he would take a “one-time commission and legal fee” of the $2 million estate, according to the State Bar’s charging documents. He quoted a fee of 2 percent, or $40,000, the documents allege.

But between 2006 and 2008, Cecil wrote checks from the Baxter accounts to himself, his firm and his other accounts totaling between $200,000 and $247,000.

The full amount Cecil appropriated is difficult to pinpoint, the State Bar opined, because he kept no records relating to the Baxter accounts. It is unclear whether the $60,000 he deposited into his trust account – proceeds from the sale of the Baxter home – is part of or in addition to the $200,000 he funneled into his own accounts.

When the State Bar investigator asked Cecil about the $60,000, the attorney initially said that the Internal Revenue Service had garnished the amount, but later admitted this was untrue, according to the State Bar’s charging documents.

In the summer of 2008, the beneficiaries of the Baxter estate met with the accountant for their trusts, who told them Cecil had apparently taken “excessive funds” from the trusts. When they confronted Cecil, he provided his “first and only invoice and summary of charges,” the State Bar determined.

Instead of taking a one-time payment, Cecil charged separately for his legal services and his commission, taking 2 percent of the estate’s value each year he served as trustee. Referencing the invoice, the State Bar reported that Cecil charged $190 an hour, for five hours every week for all of 2007 – $49,400. He continued to charge for two hours a week every week of 2008, until he was discharged.

In a June 2008 meeting and later, Cecil admitted to taking excessive fees during a period in which he was “very ill.” He promised to reimburse the beneficiaries, submitting a promissory note for $100,000, which he has not paid, the State Bar noted.

Cecil failed to produce the trust account records the State Bar sought, but allowed an investigator to image his hard drive, providing access to his computerized check register. That information, however, “did not contain the reconciliations, ledgers or documentation to either quantify the services performed” for the Baxter heirs, or that would support that his fees were reasonable.

Frannie Minton, the oldest of the Baxters’ daughters, would not comment when reached Tuesday, citing the pending criminal case. Cecil is scheduled for a hearing Monday in Buchanan County General District Court.

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