NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Suspended Deridder attorney Mitchel M. Evans II faces a possible additional suspension following a split Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) recommendation to the state Supreme Court and despite an earlier hearing committee opinion that Evans had been punished nearly enough.
"The [hearing] committee declined to recommend a sanction, stating that [Evans]' current suspension and probation is 'satisfactory punishment," the LADB noted in its June 14 recommendation. "However, the committee did recommend that the respondent provide restitution to the complainant."
For its part, all but one LADB adjudicative committee member concurred in a recommendation that Evans be suspended for a year and a day, in addition to the committee-recommended restitution. The board also recommended Evans be ordered to pay all costs and expenses of the matter.
LADB adjudicative committee member Dominick Scandurro Jr. signed the recommendation along with fellow committee members Linda G. Bizzarro, Pamela W. Carter, Brian D. Landry, Sheila E. O'Leary, Danna E. Schwab, Evans C. Spiceland Jr, and Charles H. Williamson Jr.
In her dissent included with the recommendation, adjudicative committee member Melissa L. Theriot said she agreed with the LADB recommendation except for the board finding Evans had lied to his client about a consent judgment in their case, pointing out that he hearing committee made no such finding. "This appears to be situation involving conflicting testimony," Theriot wrote in her dissent.
Evans was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on April 28, 1989, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website.
In February, an LADB hearing committee recommended that Evans, already under the suspension handed down in late 2015, receive no additional suspension over allegations he failed to comply with his clients instructions in a 2015 case. The hearing committee did recommend that he refund his former clients' complete fee of $1,200 as an unearned fee for not following their specific instructions.
Evans is subject to a three-year suspension, with two years deferred, that the state Supreme Court handed down against Evans in December 2016, following an LADB recommendation in June 2016.