Hillsboro, NH, attorney Leigh Bosse's legal license will be suspended for six months for fraudulently signing documents with an Emerald Lake landowner's name, the state Supreme Court's professional conduct committee has ruled.
Disciplinary counsel Landya McCafferty argued before the committee in July that Bosse should be disbarred, while Bosse asked for public censure. The six-month suspension is the maximum sentence the committee could impose without filing a petition to the Supreme Court. Both sides have 30 days to appeal.Bosse and his attorney, David Garfunkel of Concord, did not return repeated calls for comment yesterday.
McCafferty also declined to comment on the substance of the ruling because the case is ongoing.The charges stem from an incident in February 2003, for which Bosse already lost his real estate license. According to a stipulation of facts by both parties filed with the committee, Bosse was trying to broker a real estate deal between a buyer and two Emerald Lake landowners who had expressed interest in selling their lots. One of the landowners, Brian Soule, signed the paperwork. According to Bosse, the other owner, Raymond Grimard, asked Bosse to mail him the papers. Grimard says he asked for an appointment to further discuss the sale.
After the papers were signed for Soule's sale, Bosse submitted the information for both sales for listing on the Northern New England Real Estate Network. Several days later, the network's executive director James Boike asked Bosse for confirmation of the listings. Bosse tried unsuccessfully to reach Grimard, and then signed Grimard's name to two documents - the exclusive listing agreement and the purchase and sale agreement. Meanwhile, Grimard had decided to list his property with another Hillsboro real estate agent who was also a personal friend, Wayne DeKoning.
The professional conduct committee concluded that Bosse "violated a fundamental duty owed to the public and the legal profession: his duty to be honest and maintain high standards of integrity." Bosse also acted "deliberately and intentionally," although he did expect Grimard would be forwarding him the documents. While there was no quantifiable injury to Grimard, the committee concluded that there was "substantial injury" to the integrity of the bar.
The committee in its order also noted four factors in Bosse's favor and two against him. Bosse had no prior disciplinary record, cooperated with the disciplinary process, already lost his real estate license for the same charges in 2004, and showed remorse by admitting his deceit. However, he also acted "with a dishonest and selfish motive" and had nearly 30 years of experience practicing law.
The committee rejected the argument for disbarment because of the mitigating factors and because Bosse believed that Grimard would be forwarding him the documents. It rejected public censure because the forgery was "a significant act of misconduct."The six-month suspension, the committee wrote, "would take into account the nature of Mr. Bosse's misconduct, the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and the central purposes of attorney discipline."
The suspension will take effect Oct. 19, unless an appeal is filed.
Criminal charges for forgery are pending in Hillsborough County Superior Court, where Bosse was arraigned last week. He has filed a motion to represent himself on those charges, and a trial date has not yet been set. Assistant County Attorney Nicole Fortune, who is prosecuting the case, said the professional conduct committee's finding will not affect the criminal case. "We still intend on proceeding," she said.
Boike, who has since left the Northern New England Real Estate Network and moved to Virginia, yesterday called the sentence a "slap on the wrist."
"It was a pretty blatant violation, one that went beyond just running around the edges," Boike said. "If I forged documents, I'd be in jail."
Boike, who had been in charge of investigating complaints that the organization's members had violated internal rules and business practices, and who had submitted the forged documents to the Real Estate Commission, said there had been a disproportionate number of complaints against Bosse but no findings that were outside the norm.
"He had a history of pushing things further than they should have been pushed, so when he really crossed the line, a lot of people wanted to jump on him," Boike said. "But forging signatures on a document is a different issue than following the obscure rules and regulations of a multiple listing service."
The current investigations started after DeKoning, who had previously testified before the Real Estate Commission, gave the transcript of that hearing to the Hillsboro police. He too was upset about the suspension. "It's a shame that (the committee) did what they did. It just shows they aren't serious about policing their own." DeKoning said. "That's a joke. Attorneys should be held to a higher standard. They know what forgery is."
email: clr@clr.org