Resignation, Suspension in Inglewood

Inglewood’s city attorney has resigned after a state bar court found him guilty of misappropriating a client’s funds and suspended him from practicing law for 18 months.

Charles E. Dickerson III handed in his resignation last week after the State Bar Court in Los Angeles found he put his client’s funds in his personal account, an “act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption.”

Dickerson had been hired in October 1990 by relatives of the late Reese Jordan to sell two houses in Los Angeles. In 1995, the sale of the house on 66th Street netted approximately $4,000. Another house on Bonsallo Street netted $54,652, according to the court.

Dickerson told his clients about the $4,000 and said he “would be holding the money until the estate was closed,” the court said. But he failed to maintain a record of what he did with that check, a violation of rules of conduct, the court said.

In the case of the second house, however, Dickerson put the check in his personal account without telling the clients, the court said. During October of that year, he wrote checks totaling more than $50,000 from that account, the court found. In December, he finally told the clients that escrow on the house had closed. He eventually turned over the money, but was accused of failing to keep proper records and of commingling his money and theirs.

He could not be reached for comment Monday.

The court granted Dickerson a 30-month stay from the start of his 18-month suspension, noting that he had practiced for 15 years with an unblemished record. Stronger punishment would have been likely, the court said, but for mitigating factors such as Dickerson’s years of public service.

Dickerson, who will be 50 next Monday, served as president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works in the early ‘90s and then worked as a deputy city attorney in Los Angeles under Mayor James K. Hahn, then city attorney.

Known as a gifted singer, he also directed the choir of Holman United Methodist Church at the services on Sept. 11 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels.

In Inglewood, Dickerson’s suspension came as a shock. Mayor Roosevelt Dorn said the attorney’s resignation was immediately accepted.

“It means we have an acting city attorney until the council does a search for a new one,” Dorn said. “I’m disappointed because I think Mr. Dickerson had been here long enough where he learned what municipal government was all about. He became a more effective lawyer as time passed. Now we will have to hire another attorney, and certainly I hope it will be a fine attorney with a vast municipal law background.”

Assemblyman Jerome Horton, a former member of the City Council who participated in Dickerson’s selection, said he was surprised that the attorney never mentioned the pending court case when he was selected in 1999.

“I think he had personal reasons for not telling us,” he said “No one knew about it.”

Councilwoman Judy Dunlap said she didn’t vote for Dickerson for city attorney because he was not the choice of the city’s executive search team. “He wasn’t even one of the finalists,” said Dunlap, a nine-year council veteran. “I wasn’t presented with a resume, and I was concerned about that.”

Marilyn Douroux, a longtime resident and critic of the city administration, said it should have taken more time to investigate his background. “His appointment was political,” she said. “There were better candidates that they passed over.”

In his two years on the job, Dickerson had weathered several storms in a city that is no stranger to controversy.

He was among the city officials accused by a group of residents of violating the Ralph M. Brown Act by holding meetings without proper public notice and at times inconvenient to residents.

More recently, he was involved in the city’s response to the police beating of teenager Donovan Jackson at an Inglewood gas station. Dickerson provided courts with a list of 170 cases since 1990 in which lawsuits were filed against police officers for civil rights violations, shootings and alleged use of excessive force. The city has paid $1.8 million in claims for those cases.

After his 18-month suspension from practice, he will remain on probation for five years.