California Bar Accuses L.A. Lawyer of Deceiving Prisoners Seeking Resentencing
The California Bar filed disciplinary charges on August 26, 2024, against Los Angeles attorney Aaron Spolin, 39, accusing him of moral turpitude, charging unconscionable fees and 16 other violations of professional conduct rules and the state business code.
After two new measures took effect in 2019— SB 2942, which expanded review of sentence lengths, and SB 1437, ordering resentencing for anyone convicted under the state’s felony murder statute who did not directly participate in the killing—Spolin quickly signed up some 2,000 clients at fees ranging from $3,000 to $30,000.
But as PLN reported, the Bar opened an investigation in 2023 after the Los Angeles Times reported that some Spolin clients accused the attorney of missing key elements in pleadings, like sworn declarations from potential alibi witnesses or expert witnesses whose testimony is crucial in habeas corpus petitions. Deputy Los Angeles County Public Defender Karen Nash accused Spolin of “getting rich off the most vulnerable people” with “false hope that could really hurt them.” [See: PLN, Sep. 2023, p.63.]
The allegations in the Bar’s complaint concern four Spolin clients, including Ernestine Holley. Her fiancé, Karl Darnell Holmes, 49, has been on death row along with two fellow gang members since January 1997; they were convicted in the fatal drive-by shooting of three teen boys out trick-or-treating on Halloween night three years earlier, in what was by all accounts a case of mistaken identity. Spolin collected $3,000 from Holley to review the case in February 2022, after the state Supreme Court affirmed Holmes’ conviction and sentence. See: People v. Holmes, McClain & Newborn, 12 Cal. 5th 719 (2022). The bar alleged that Spolin “strongly recommended” pursuing the prisoner’s release—at an additional fee—without advising Holley “that based on Holmes’ violent and serious felony convictions, Holmes fell outside the ‘priority criteria’ applied by the LADA [Los Angeles County District Attorney] in determining which, if any, cases it would consider for resentencing.”
Another client, Tiffany Abram, was the sister of Thomas Stringer, Jr., 38, who is serving 160 years for a string of armed robberies carried out with fellow members of the Family Swan Bloods street gang in 2009 and 2010 at Southern California GameStop stores. After Spolin collected a $14,700 fee in 2022, Abram belatedly did some research on the LADA website and confronted the attorney about her brother’s apparent disqualification from consideration for resentencing. But the attorney assured her that his office had contacted LADA and “they stated they would like more information about you and your case”—which was a lie, the Bar alleged, since LADA had “never requested ‘more information’” about Stringer’s case.
A third client, Shawnty Wynn, agreed to pay Spolin $26,700 in April 2021 to seek resentencing of her brother, John Wayne Poe, 40. He is serving at least 64 years for the fatal August 2002 shooting of Ezzat Monroe, 18, during a brawl outside an L.A. nightclub. Poe, then 20, was a Queen Street Bloods gang member known as “Little Menace,” while Monroe was in the rival Crips gang. The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, affirmed Poe’s conviction and sentence in November 2005. See: People v. Poe, 2005 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 10636 (Nov. 21, 2005). The nature of that conviction put Poe “outside of the ‘priority criteria’ applied by the LADA” in making AB2942 considerations, the Bar noted, alleging that Spolin didn’t tell Wynn before collecting the fee. Worse, part of the fee paid him to shepherd the petition even though “he had previously received numerous letters from the LADA,” the Bar continued, making it explicit that the only possible follow-up was “to check the website for updates”—a website that also advised LADA “was not accepting calls, emails, letters, or other submissions regarding individual cases under AB2942.”
The fourth client, Laura Lish, turned to Spolin for help in securing resentencing for her husband, Dustin David Lish, 32. He is serving at least 15 years for second-degree murder after taking a $30 alcohol tab as a bonus from his boss at a La Habra U-Haul rental agency in November 2011, then getting drunk and using a friend to rent one of the agency’s trucks, which Lish drove the wrong way down a freeway until he collided with a car driven by Joseph Queszada, 20, who died in the crash. Even though SB 1437 explicitly excludes resentencing for murder convicts who directly participate in a killing, Spolin collected $28,500 to make a futile attempt on Lish’s behalf, the Bar alleged.
If found guilty on any count, Spolin could face sanctions up to and including disbarment. PLN will update developments in the case as they are available. See: In the matter of Aaron Spolin, Calif. State Bar Court (Los Angeles), Case No. SBC-24-O-30656.
Additional sources: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, KNBC, Los Angeles Times
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