Lawyer Held After Handling Case While Suspended

A Van Nuys lawyer was arrested Wednesday in the San Fernando Courthouse on suspicion of practicing law with a suspended license, five days after he was arrested in San Bernardino County on similar charges.

Daniel Webster Bowles III, 38, who is being held in County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, had his license suspended by the State Bar of California on Sept. 29, 1986, for failing to pay a $180 membership fee.

Bowles was already under State Bar investigation when he failed to pay the fee. Ann Charles, a State Bar spokeswoman, said Wednesday that the organization intends to recommend to the state Supreme Court that Bowles be disbarred because he violated rules of professional conduct from 1983 to 1985.

San Fernando Municipal Judge Michael S. Luros said he set such a high bail Wednesday because he was “outraged” that Bowles “violated his obligation to his clients” by continuing to represent himself as an attorney even after Friday’s arrest.

Bowles was arrested at the Rancho Cucamonga branch of the San Bernardino Superior Court on five misdemeanor counts of suspicion of practicing law without a license. He posted $5,000 bail and was released.

On Tuesday, Bowles represented two clients in separate preliminary hearings in San Fernando Municipal Court, according to court records. He returned to the courthouse Wednesday to represent a client in an attempted-murder case and was arrested. Earlier this year, one of Bowles’ clients was convicted of robbery.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office did not learn that Bowles was practicing law with a suspended license--and that he had been arrested in San Bernardino County--until Wednesday morning, according to a court document filed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Meredith S. Rust. Gil Garcetti, chief deputy of the district attorney’s office, said Bowles’ cases will not be retried even though Bowles’ license was suspended when he accepted them. Practicing with a suspended license is not grounds for reversal of a conviction, Garcetti said.

Bowles was admitted to the bar in 1977 after receiving a law degree from Hastings Law School, Charles said. She added that the bar had found Bowles guilty on March 7 of six counts of violating rules of professional conduct from 1983 to 1985, including taking advance fees without performing promised services and failing to notify a client of a cash award issued by an arbitration court.

Bowles, who held his head in his hands several times during Wednesday’s hearing before Luros, had been on probation for two counts of driving with a suspended license in June and August, 1986. Bowles had left the San Fernando Courthouse after hearing on the first traffic violation when he was arrested again.

During court proceedings in June, 1986, shortly after Bowles’ first traffic citation, Luros sentenced him to five days in County Jail after he admitted giving the judge a phony excuse for being late. Bowles had said he was detained on a matter in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Bowles violated his probation by refusing to report for a drug test on Oct. 9, 1986, according to court records.

On Dec. 11, 1986, Luros sentenced Bowles to 45 days in County Jail for the traffic violations.

Luros revoked Bowles’ probation Wednesday and scheduled a bail-review hearing for today.