LOS ANGELES – The State Bar Court of California recently placed Charles Leroy Dupree IV, a San Francisco attorney, on an interim suspension after the California State Bar received notification that he had not met the terms of a prior suspension order.
According to the December 5 decision, Dupree was initially placed on an interim suspension in October 2014, which was later declared an official suspension on Oct. 30, 2015.
The original suspension stems from a September 2014 incident in a Macy’s department store in which the attorney allegedly entered the store with a black backpack filled with newspaper and wire cutters, according to court documents. While walking around the store, a loss prevention officer (LPO) became suspicious of the attorney and followed him.
Dupree eventually took the items he had collected to the fitting rooms. The LPO allegedly heard him “popping” the sensors. When the attorney exited the fitting room, the LPO discovered newspaper on the floor and only two of the several items he had taken into the room with him.
The attorney left the store without setting the security alarms off and was cornered in the parking lot by LPOs. Dupree had allegedly stolen $368 in clothing from the store, which was recovered and returned. The attorney pleaded nolo contendere to the charges.
Part of the conditions laid out in Dupree’s 2015 suspension required him to take and pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam within a year. He allegedly failed to complete this task. As a result, another interim suspension order was placed.
Dupree was admitted to the California State Bar in 1991 upon graduating from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. Prior to the original suspension order for theft, the attorney had no record of discipline.