Attorney who spent night in jail for practicing without license disbarred

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The state Supreme Court this week disbarred a Teaneck attorney who was arrested earlier this year for representing a client in a Hackensack courtroom while her license was suspended and messing with hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgage refinancing for her clients, among other misdeeds.

Photo Credit: *BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR*

Jerry DeMarco

10/14/2011 4:07 p.m.

Michele SimmsParris (MUGSHOT courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR)

This comes less than a week after a federal appeals court affirmed the temporary suspension of Michelle SimmsParris, 38, a partner in the firm SimmsParris, Maldonado and Tehauno of Teaneck, from practicing in U.S. District Court.

Bergen County prosecutors had to go so far as to obtain a warrant for her arrest after SimmsParris didn’t show up for an April interview about the charges. She even spent a night in jail before being bailed out.

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Michele SimmsParris of 65 Irvington Road represented a client in an undisclosed matter on March 10 before Superior Court Judge Robert P. Contillo in Hackensack.

They looked for her the following day, with no luck, then obtained the arrest warrant, which carries $2,500 bail, the prosecutor said.

SimmsParris, who had been a lawyer 11 years, testified before the state’s highest court on Tuesday but didn’t address the specific charges, The New Jersey Law Journal reported. Instead, she complained about technical discrepancies, it said. The justices issued their decision yesterday.

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