SAN FRANCISCO – Rowland Heights attorney Terrence Lee has been summarily disbarred following a California Supreme Court decision and his felony conviction for engaging in inappropriate sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl.
The high court issued its disbarment order on May 16 and Lee's effective disbarment date will be Saturday, June 15, according to a recent announcement on the State Bar of California's website.
The Supreme Court also ordered Lee to pay costs.
"A conviction of a serious sexual offense involves moral turpitude because the offense is 'one of depravity, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man,'" the four-page California State Bar Court recommendation for summary disbarment issued in January said. "Accordingly, Lee’s felony conviction qualifies him for summary disbarment."
Under California law, Lee's conviction rendered him not entitled to a State Bar Court hearing to determine whether he could receive a lesser discipline and he did not respond to a state bar request for summary disbarment, according to the decision and order.
Lee was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 2, 2015, according to his profile at the state bar website. Lee had no history of discipline in his less-than-three years admitted to the bar in California, according to his profile.
Lee has been on interim suspension since October.
In August, a Pomona Superior Court judge sentenced Lee to two years in prison following his no contest plea the previous May to felony oral copulation of a person younger than 16. Lee also is now required to register as a sex offender.
Lee, now 31, is a former basketball coach for Cedarlane Academy in Hacienda Heights and his alleged victim was one of his players, with whom he allegedly began a relationship in April 2017.
He was booked into Industry Sheriff’s Station jail the following June.
An online inmate search did not turn up a prisoner by Lee's name in California and information on his sex offender registry indicates he's on probation.