Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel v. Miller, 335 Conn. 474 (2020)

Citation: Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel v. Miller, 335 Conn. 474 (2020)
Parent Document: Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel v. Miller, 335 Conn. 474 (2020)
Jurisdiction: Connecticut (state)
Effective Date: 2020-04-27
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4801014/office-of-chief-disciplinary-co... ↗

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local hotel, which they did. This was followed by several
social visits. At a visit on or about May 27, 2013, Ms. I
Am told the respondent that she wanted to ‘‘bless’’ her
by giving her a gift of $200,000 and gave her a check
dated May 27, 2013, payable to her in that amount. [Tr.
2 62:10–23, Miller; Petitioner’s Ex. 5]. Ms. I Am placed
no conditions or restrictions on the respondent’s usage
of the gift. [Tr. 2 63:13–15, Miller]. Although the funds
were not related to any specific professional work done
by the respondent for Ms. I Am, the respondent wrote
her own name onto the check and deposited the funds
into her IOLTA account on May 28, 2013. [Tr. 2 65:12–18,
Miller; Petitioner’s Ex. 5]. The respondent indicated her
reason for placing the funds into the IOLTA account
was that Ms. I Am was an ‘‘odd person.’’ In doing so,
the respondent comingled the gift funds with $14,587.59
of her clients’ funds held in the IOLTA account.
Having received this unsolicited gift, the respondent
decided to use ten percent (10%) of the funds to make
a donation to her church, Community Temple. She testi-
fied ‘‘that any money that comes into my hands, I, as
a matter of religious belief, pay a tithe on it.’’ [Tr. 2
67:3–7, Miller]. On June 7, 2013, the respondent wrote
check #1145 from her IOLTA account made payable to
Josephine S. Miller in the amount of $10,000. [Tr. 2
66:23–25, Miller; Petitioner’s Ex. 5]. The back of the
check was endorsed to the order of Community Temple.
On July 21, 2013, the respondent wrote a second check
from her IOLTA account, #1118, made payable to Jose-
phine S. Miller in the amount of $10,000, which was
also endorsed to the order of Community Temple. [Tr.
2 67:16–20, Miller; Petitioner’s Ex. 5]. Ms. I Am did not
instruct or require the respondent to make any donation
to her church at the time she made the gift to the
respondent. [Tr. 2 67:24–68:1, Miller].
In August, 2013, approximately three months after
the respondent’s receipt of the gift, Ms. I Am contacted
November 3, 2020 CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL Page 41

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