D.C. High Court Boots Lawyer From Bar For Criminal Convictions Involving Ripoffs Of Landlords, Tenants

In Washington, D.C., Washington City Paper reports:

• After introducing us to foreclosure scammers, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals gifted us with another tale of malfeasance []. This time: the case of Kim E. Hallmark, a crooked lawyer, permanently disbarred for an “offense involving moral turpitude.”(1)

• Over a period of two years in the early 1990s, Hallmark swindled a series of landlords and tenants out of a total $40,000, racking up eight misdemeanor charges for theft, fraud, and contempt of court. In one “typical” case from 2000, Hallmark leased an apartment on New Jersey Avenue, first tried to pay rent with a faulty check, and then paid for two months rent while occupying the place for ten months. In the mean time, while the owners tried to evict her, she sublet the apartment for two months—her subletters left upon realizing she wasn’t the landlord.

For more, see Crooked Lawyer Finally Disbarred After Swindling Landlords, Tenants out of $40K.

(1) For the ruling of the D.C. Court of Appeals formally (and finally) giving her the boot from the D.C. Bar, see In re Hallmark, No. 03-BG-762 (D.C. June 10, 2010).