A Florida attorney convicted for his Jan. 6 participation asked for a form of disbarment
A year after a Florida lawyer finished his sentence for participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol he asked to leave the Florida Bar.
What Michael Stepakoff, a bar member since 1990, requested and received was disciplinary revocation, which the state Supreme Court says is “tantamount to disbarment.”
The Florida Bar discipline case against Stepakoff after his J6-related conviction goes away. In return, Stepakoff is out of the bar for at least five years. His disciplinary revocation comes with permission to reapply for readmission.
Attorneys petitioning for disciplinary revocation usually plan on leaving the profession anyway or expect to be disbarred, so just want to save the time and expense of going through the discipline case. There would’ve been some punitive action against Stepakoff, but his crime was neither violent nor costly (restitution was $500) and his sentence wasn’t prison, but a year on probation.
Stepakoff didn’t return a phone message, a text message or an email from the Herald. His last business address was in Palm Harbor. He’d been a member of the Florida Bar since Sept. 24, 1990 with his only previous discipline an admonishment in 1995 and a six-month suspension in 2006.
READ MORE: Florida leads all states in people facing charges over Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol
Stepakoff on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol
Stepakoff, who is also a rabbi at Temple New Jerusalem, a Messianic Judaism congregation in Tarpon Springs, went to what started as a protest outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as Congress met to certify the result of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
Stepakoff’s guilty plea admission of facts says he “recorded a video while approaching the United States Capitol Building with a crowd of people. While recording, [Stepakoff] stated, “There comes a time for people to say, ‘We’re not going to take it.’ Here we are, taking our stand on Capitol Hill.”
Surveillance cameras inside the building show Stepakoff entering through an exit door at 3 p.m. He took about eight photos, then left within five minutes.
“[Stepakoff] understands and agrees that he entered the Capitol and unlawfully demonstrated at approximately 3 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.
Stepakoff pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. He was sentenced to 12 months probation, fined $742, ordered to pay $500 restitution and brushed with a special assessment of $10.
