A judge has suspended Ogden attorney Jean Babilis for three years for improprieties in handling the estate of a client's deceased mother.
The Utah State Bar had contended the attorney "looted" the estate and asked that he be disbarred.First District Judge Gordon Low of Logan said bar regulations provide for disbarment for such things as fraud, extortion, homicide and conspiracy.
"The behavior and misconduct of Mr. Babilis, as reprehensible as it was, is not of that same nature, genre and description," Low said.
Babilis, a former Ogden police officer, has been under bar prosecution for more than three years.
The bar accused the 41-year-old lawyer of several violations of bar regulations stemming from his $78,659 billing of the estate of the late Jane Kerns of Ogden.
The judge earlier this year found Babilis in violation of eight bar canons, including misleading a probate judge about the Kerns estate assets, conversion of estate funds for his own use without authorization and billing his client for work performed by a paralegal.
"Babilis' looting of the Kerns estate was inexcusable and motivated by the kind of greed and self-dealing that smears the entire legal profession," bar prosecutor Stephen Cochell contended.
Low said that Babilis had only one prior reprimand on his bar record.
He said that after subtraction of improper costs assessed the Kerns family, Babilis' actual fee "was, at least arguably, not out of line."