Lawyer’s ties to convicted process server probed
The Nevada State Bar is investigating whether longtime attorney Lizzie Hatcher was truthful to authorities about her professional dealings with the convicted owner of an unlicensed process serving company.
The owner, former Las Vegas police officer Maurice Carroll, was convicted in October of perjury and submitting false affidavits in court.
Assistant Bar Counsel Phil Pattee said Friday that the investigation is the result of a Sept. 9 Las Vegas Review-Journal article on Hatcher’s links to Carroll. The report said Hatcher had made conflicting statements about her relationship with Carroll and his company, On Scene Mediations.
Pattee said the results of the investigation will be turned over to a screening panel of the bar’s Southern Nevada Disciplinary Board to decide whether to pursue sanctions.
It is against bar rules of professional conduct for a lawyer to engage in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” or to make false statements to judicial officers.
Las Vegas police have been independently investigating whether Hatcher knew about the On Scene Mediations scheme. Both Carroll and his office manager, Vilisia Coleman, were convicted of lying in affidavits when swearing they had served some defendants with copies of lawsuits filed by debt collection agency Richland Holdings. The company obtained default judgments after the defendants failed to respond to the papers they never received.
Hatcher, 56, a member of the State Bar since 1983 and past judicial candidate, used On Scene Mediations for several years to serve lawsuits she handled for payday loan company Rapid Cash.
Following a police raid on Carroll’s North Las Vegas home in July, Hatcher told detectives and Las Vegas justices of the peace that she never considered Carroll an employee.
But letters on her legal stationery later surfaced in which she identified Carroll as her employee.
Hatcher could not be reached for comment Friday.
Las Vegas Justice court officials have voiced concern that the rights of thousands of defendants sued by Carroll’s clients over the years may have been violated in the affidavit scheme. Some of those defendants have filed a class-action lawsuit against Rapid Cash in District Court.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@review journal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.