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02/11/2011 "See News Release 010 for any Concurrences and/or Dissents." SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA NO. 10-B-2729 IN RE: PRESSLEY C. CALAHAN

ATTORNEY DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS

PER CURIAM*
This disciplinary matter arises from formal charges filed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel ("ODC") against respondent, Pressley Charles Calahan, a disbarred attorney.

UNDERLYING FACTS By way of background, on May 17, 2006, this court disbarred respondent for misconduct that included defrauding a legally blind woman into signing a contingent fee agreement, forging an endorsement on a settlement check, forging a signature on an affidavit, making a false accusation in a pretrial memorandum that a police sergeant may have had a sexually intimate relationship with a convicted felon, and blatantly violating the confidentiality rule regarding complaints filed with the Judiciary Commission. In re: Calahan, 06-0005 (La. 5/17/06), 930 So. 2d 916. In October 2007, The Daily Iberian newspaper reported that respondent was arrested for continuing to practice law after being disbarred and was charged with five counts of unlawful practice of law.1 On January 22, 2009, respondent pled no

*

Chief Justice Kimball not participating in the opinion.

According to respondent, the charges stemmed from five letters he sent to the owners of a cemetery next to a cemetery he maintains. The letters requested that the owners of the adjoining cemetery stop soliciting donations from the family members of people buried in the cemetery he maintains.

1

contest to eight counts of unlawful practice of law, four counts of filing false public records (in violation of La. R.S. 14:133), one count of forgery (in violation of La. R.S. 14:72), and one count of public intimidation (in violation of La. R.S. 14:122).

DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS In December 2009, the ODC filed one count of formal charges against respondent. The formal charges alleged that in pleading no contest to the abovedescribed criminal conduct, respondent violated the following provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct: Rules 5.5 (engaging in the unauthorized practice of law), 8.4(a) (violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct), 8.4(b) (commission of a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer), 8.4(c) (engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation), and 8.4(d) (engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice). Respondent was served with the formal charges via certified mail but failed to answer. Accordingly, the factual allegations contained therein were deemed admitted and proven by clear and convincing evidence pursuant to Supreme Court Rule XIX,

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