ST. CHARLES, Mo. (CN) - An attorney's voluntary suspension of his practice is not enough to get him out of hot water with a state disciplinary panel over his role in an autographed baseball scandal. The panel recommended that Brian Zink have his license suspended one year retroactively.
Zink had voluntarily stopped practicing law for a year beginning in June 2007. Zink represented a client who claimed to be the goddaughter of Hall of Fame Quarterback Terry Bradshaw. He negotiated an agreement under which prosecutor Matthew Thornhill would drop the felony forgery charges against Zink's client to misdemeanors if the client gave Thornhill a ball signed by Bradshaw.
The ball itself turned out to be a forgery.
"We just believe that an attorney saying, 'Well, I'm going to suspend my practice for a year as a result of what I've done' is not something that is up to that person," Missouri's chief disciplinary counsel Alan Pratzel told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Zink's case is expected to be heard by the state Supreme Court sometime this fall. Zink is free to practice law until then.
The disciplinary panel recommended a reprimand for Thornhill. The Missouri Supreme Court has not acted on that recommendation yet.
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