The
disciplinary arm of the Illinois Supreme Court has recommended that Kent Gray,
a local politician and attorney for Southern View and Illiopolis, be
suspended from practice for one year for lying in court and practicing law
without a license.
The
Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission in a report issued
Tuesday found that Gray had lied in 2015 when he told former Sangamon County
Associate Judge Steve Nardulli that he was unable to obtain transcripts of
federal tax returns for five tax years dating from 2010 to 2014 because of a
snafu in the Internal Revenue Service’s transcript retrieval system.
Nardulli,
who has retired, was presiding over Gray’s divorce case. In fact, there were no
income tax transcripts available because Gray hadn’t filed state or federal
income tax returns for five years, nor had he paid any state or federal income
taxes. And so the judge in 2015 reported Gray to the ARDC.
“This
court is alarmed that a practicing attorney has not filed income tax returns or
paid income tax for a five-year period,” Nardulli wrote in a court order. “The
court is obligated to forward a copy of these findings to the Illinois Attorney
Registration and Disciplinary Commission to further investigate this issue.”
According
to the ARDC report, Gray attempted to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege and
refused to answer questions during the commission’s investigation.
Gray
had been a Lincoln Land Community College trustee for 18 years until he was
defeated by local attorney Gordon Gates in an April election. Gray was also Donald
Trump’s state campaign manager last year but was replaced before the general
election.
In
addition to lying about tax returns, the commission found that Gray had
practiced law without a valid license when he performed work for Southern View
and Illiopolis. The commission notified Gray on March 11, 2015, that he had
been removed from the roll of licensed lawyers in Illinois for failure to register
as a lawyer with the ARDC and pay the required registration fee. After paying the
required fee, Gray was added to the roll of registered lawyers on April 17,
2015, according to the ARDC.
Before
being returned to the roll of registered lawyers, Gray attended two Southern
View village board meetings and billed the village at the rate of $171 per
hour, according to the ARDC report. Gray also charged the village for other
legal work while he was not registered to practice law, according to the ARDC. Gray
also submitted bills for monthly retainers of $2,200 to Illiopolis in the
spring of 2015 while he was not authorized to practice law, according to the
ARDC. The commission also found that Gray, as of March 7, had not registered to
practice law in 2017, which the commission found “surprising and troubling.”
The
commission recommended that Gray be suspended for one year for dishonesty,
knowingly making false statements in court pleadings, failing to comply with
court orders, engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice
and practicing law without a valid license. The Supreme Court will make the
final decision.
The
commission also found that Gray had unfairly maligned the ARDC, its lawyers and
its processes during a March disciplinary hearing, when he said, among other
things, that his accusers had “stacked the deck.” The ARDC also faulted Gray
for telling the State Journal-Register,
after allegations against him were filed, that the system was “rigged” and that
the system was “a joke.”
“Respondent
(Gray) demonstrated that he does not recognize he engaged in any misconduct and
showed no remorse for anything he has done,” the commission wrote in its
report.
Gray could not be immediately reached for comment.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2017.
