Dallas Lawyer Gets 8 Years for Lewd Conduct

DALLAS (CN) — A Dallas attorney was sentenced Thursday to eight years in state prison and denounced by fellow attorneys for masturbating in front of teenage girls he hired for his law office.

Rayan Dhanesh Ganesh, 34, of Coppell, was sentenced by state District Judge Amber Givens-Davis. After a three-day trial, a Dallas County jury convicted him Wednesday on two counts of indecency with a child by exposure. Ganesh was immediately taken into custody and booked into the county jail Thursday night, according to jail records.

Prosecutors asked the judge to consider the large number of other attorneys in the gallery Thursday, deploring that Ganesh’s actions had tarnished the profession.

“He has made us look horrible,” said Assistant District Attorney Michael Snipes. “He used his position as a lawyer to victimize little girls.”

Ganesh is also facing seven counts of barratry for allegedly roaming the halls of the Frank Crowley Courts Building to solicit clients.

Three of his victims testified Thursday. Now 17 years old, one unidentified girl said Ganesh approached her mother to solicit her as a client at the courthouse two years ago. She said Ganesh offered her a job though she was just 15 years old and had no experience.

She testified that only younger girls worked at the office and that she was rejected when she asked if her brother could work there. She said Ganesh masturbated in front of her two times: once when he was looking at pornography at his desk and once when he was driving her home.

Prosecutors said that as a lawyer, Ganesh easily could have looked up the state criminal laws regarding his conduct.

“He could have closed the book and put away his penis,” said Assistant District Attorney Keena Miller. “We would not be here right now”

Several attorneys also testified Thursday, saying Ganesh was known to go from floor to floor to solicit new clients for himself.

Telephone calls to Ganesh’s Dallas law office were not answered Thursday afternoon. He graduated from South Texas College of Law in Houston in 2012 and is under a fully probated suspension, according to the State Bar of Texas.

Follow @davejourno

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