Lawyer in bad-checks case suspended for misconduct

A Las Vegas attorney charged with writing $400,000 worth of bad checks has been suspended from practicing law in Nevada for five years, according to a court ruling issued Friday.

The Nevada Supreme Court said it agreed with a State Bar of Nevada disciplinary committee’s determination that Brian Christopher Padgett, 47, engaged in misconduct.

Padgett was arrested in August on charges of writing two checks for $350,000 and $50,000, with prosecutors saying he had insufficient funds in his bank account to cover the amounts. He is scheduled to go to trial in October on felony charges related to the bounced checks.

The State Bar’s disciplinary committee also recommended that his license be revoked for misconduct involving two of Padgett’s former clients. The committee said one of the sustained complaints involved a former client who accused Padgett of taking a $152,000 civil judgment from him in District Court without his knowledge.

The second sustained complaint involves a former employee of Padgett’s marijuana company, CWNevada, who said Padgett persuaded him to take on a civil liability with the promise that Padgett would pay it off. He never did.

Padgett’s marijuana business has been the subject of extensive litigation in District Court, with creditors contending the company didn’t pay its bills. In July, the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board voted to strip more than a dozen licenses from the business plagued with accusations of fraud and unpaid taxes.

And, in September, an investigation by the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed Padgett used cocaine with a woman in 2017 who died from a drug overdose. The lawyer never called authorities to report the woman’s medical state, but he was never arrested or charged in the death.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.