Huntington Beach : State Bar Court Disbars Lawyer Henry Willson

A Huntington Beach lawyer has been disbarred, the State Bar Court announced.

The disbarment of Henry Ross Willson, 70, was one of several actions ordered this week by the State Bar Court in San Francisco. The court acts as a disciplinary arm of the State Bar of California and the state Supreme Court.

Willson was accused of settling personal injury claims without the knowledge of his clients, causing clients’ names to be forged on settlement checks and misappropriating the settlement funds.

Also disbarred was Paul W. Douglass Jr., 38, of San Diego. Douglass forged his client’s name to 16 checks and misappropriated more than $13,000, the court said. He pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft and embezzlement and was sentenced to 79 days in jail.

In other matters, the Bar Court placed several lawyers on suspension. They were James Dean Doggett, 56, Beverly Hills; Barbara Ann Pennel Falls, 46, Virginia Beach, Va.; Llewellyn Howell Gedge, 48, Vista; Milton Ross Gunter, 57, Los Angeles; Howard Farris Rhea, 66, Walnut Creek; Cheryl L. Richardson, 35, Los Angeles; Ernest Mark Zobrist, 37, Salt Lake City, and Larry R. Modes, 44, Santa Rosa.

Doggett, Falls, Gunter, Rhea and Richardson were accused of not performing the services for which they were retained.

Gedge, who was ordered to obtain psychiatric or psychological help, was accused of failing to notify a client of receipt of a settlement check, not depositing the check in a client trust account, telling the client he had not received the check and falsely telling her he had mailed the money to her.

Zobrist was accused of involvement in a plan to purchase stolen food products from California and ship them to Nevada.

Modes pleaded guilty to four counts of committing a lewd and lascivious act upon a child younger than 14.