George Temple, an attorney running for First Selectman as a Republican, faced disciplinary action in 2009 after a client filed a grievance against him.
As a result, Temple had to take six hours of continuing legal education, which included a course on ethics, according to Statewide Bar Counsel Michael P. Bowler.
The complaint against Temple was probed by the Statewide Grievance Committee and the Statewide Bar Counsel.
Temple noted the grievance is the single complaint lodged against him in his 35 years as an attorney, which includes time spent as town counsel in Oxford and Seymour. The Statewide Grievance also acknowledged Temple’s record.
“There certainly wasn’t any dishonesty involved or anything of that nature,” Temple said. “I was wrong and I manned up.”
According to the grievance, in 2003 Temple took on a personal injury case representing Johnnie Mae Jenkins, a Bridgeport woman who was injured after slipping and falling on an icy driveway.
Temple advised her first to go to physical therapy, according to Jenkins. The client did, running up a bill of about $4,500.
Temple then lost interest in her case, Jenkins said. In 2005, he advised her to get another lawyer.
In 2008, the Grievance Panel for the Judicial District of Ansonia/Milford found probable cause that Temple had failed to properly withdraw as her lawyer and that he failed to pursue the matter, which led a court to dismiss Jenkins’ personal injury lawsuit.
Temple paid Jenkins for her physical therapy bill prior to the panel’s decision.
Temple said Monday that because of attorney-client privilege, he could not talk about why he dropped Jenkins as a client.
“I had my reasons for doing that, and I would do it again, but I didn’t follow the proper protocol, which is to write a letter and say ‘Find another attorney, and these are your rights,’” Temple said.
Temple’s Republican running mate, Jeffrey Haney, said the grievance is the only complaint against Temple during a long legal career.
“You have to take that matter with the hundreds of clients he’s worked with. Everybody has a little something in their background, something that happened to them along the way. You can’t make every client happy. You can’t please everybody,” Haney said.
The case should have no bearing on the Oxford First Selectman race, Haney said.
After publishing an article Oct. 13 about Democratic candidate’s Joseph Calabrese 2009 foreclosure, the Valley Indy received three e‑mails accusing the publication of favoring Republicans. The e‑mails all referenced Temple’s sanction. The issue has also been raised by anonymous posters on Oxford Patch.
Carol Georgette, chairwoman of the Democratic Town Committee, declined comment.
