Medina County attorney suspended two years for relationship with client, other breaches
A Medina County attorney has had his law license suspended for two years after the Ohio Supreme Court found he had a sexual relationship with a client, then threatened to kill her after they separated, among other breaches of professional conduct.
The court determined Russell Buzzelli of Wadsworth violated 18 rules of professional conduct in cases involving the woman, his wife and two other clients between 2017 and 2019.
The supreme court on Wednesday accepted findings from its Board of Professional Conduct and recommended a two-year suspension. Buzzelli is required to petition for reinstatement if he wants his law license back.
He also must pay one client $7,850 restitution – about half of the retainer he did not refund when the client terminated his employment. In addition, he must complete six hours of coursework on sexual harassment and employee management, and pay the costs of the disciplinary proceedings.
The Medina County Bar Association filed a complaint against Buzzelli in 2021, initially charging him with 23 ethics rule violations. The court found he had committed 18 rule violations and dismissed five based on insufficient evidence.
According to the decision, Buzzelli admitted he had a sexual relationship with a client that started in July 2017, shortly before she retained him to handle divorce proceedings against her husband.
Around the time their relationship ended, in September 2018, the woman secretly recorded a conversation she had with Buzzelli, in which court records state he told her he had previously killed someone and had the capacity to kill again.
"And although Buzzelli denied that his statements constituted a threat to kill [the woman], the board found that they were an implied threat to do just that," the ruling states.
The court said those statements constituted misdemeanor menacing and ruled the crime so egregious that it adversely reflects on his fitness to practice law.
Wrongdoing found involving other clients
Two other clients were said to have been the subjects of ethical breaches, one who had retained Buzzelli in a divorce action in 2018, and another involving a Wadsworth Municipal Court appointment as defense attorney for a woman appealing an OVI conviction.
The court found Buzzelli failed to act with reasonable diligence in representing the woman in her divorce action and failed to refund about half of his retainer after she eventually terminated his representation and hired another lawyer.
In the OVI case, the court found Buzzelli did not respond to an appeals court order to file a response in the case, which led to the appeal being rejected. The client filed a grievance against Buzzelli, and a public defender convinced the appeals court to reopen the case due to ineffective assistance of counsel on Buzzelli's part.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Medina County lawyer license suspended after relationship with client
