LOS ANGELES — Jeremy Dennis Eveland, a lawyer practicing out of West Jordan, Utah, was disbarred from practicing law in California in the wake of his guilty plea for communications fraud.
The ruling was handed down Dec. 4, 2016, by order of the California Supreme Court, according to the State Bar website.
According to court documents, Eveland pleaded guilty in March 2015 and sentenced to 24 months probation by a Salt Lake County judge.
The State Bar Court of California reserves the right to disbar an attorney in situations where the following criteria outlined in the Business and Professions Code subsection 6102. If the offense committed by the attorney is classified as a felony and also displays moral turpitude, summary disbarment is within reason. Eveland’s communications-fraud charge is filed under the Utah’s Penal Code as a third-degree felony, and his actions fall within the bounds of moral turpitude as he intended to “scheme or defraud” other persons.
Outlined in the California Penal Code, communications fraud is described as “Any person who has devised any scheme or artifice to defraud another or to obtain from another money, property, or anything of value by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, or material omissions, and who communicates directly or indirectly with any person by any means for the purpose of executing or concealing the scheme or artifice is guilty … .”
The amount, which was obtained through the fraudulent act, must exceed $1,500.
Eveland was initially placed on an interim suspension in July 2016 to provide adequate time for the attorney to appeal his conviction before an official discipline was handed down by the State Bar. However, upon receiving the federal court ruling from the Third District Court of Salt Lake County, it was recommended by the Office of the Chief Trial Counsel of the State Bar that the attorney be disbarred. The State Bar Court of California determined that Eveland’s actions showed great moral turpitude as he knowingly engaged in the felony criminal activity. The attorney was not granted a hearing.
Eveland will be required to comply with the California Rules of Court Rule 9.20 subsections (a) and (c) in regards to his suspension. The rules require Eveland to notify all of his clients of the ruling, deliver any papers necessary to clients in regards to their cases, return any fees that remain unearned, and alert opposing counsel in any pending litigation of his disbarment. Eveland must then file the clerk of the State Bar Court that he has complied with the provisions of his disbarment.
Eveland was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2004, according to his profile page on the State Bar's website.
The State Bar of California was established in 1927 by the state’s legislature and is governed by 19 trustees. The State Bar Court added appointed full-time judges in 1989. Court documents for all State Bar Court of California cases can be found online at calbar.ca.gov.