Billings attorney faces 10-month suspension
BILLINGS (AP) — A Billings attorney has been suspended from practicing law for 10 months for withholding information from a judge in an adoption case and hampering investigations into his conduct in two other cases, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled.
The high court filed orders on July 22 stating that that Roy W. Johnson Jr. is suspended for three months for his actions in the adoption case and for another seven months for failing to turn over requested documents in two other cases. The suspensions run consecutively and begin on Sept. 1.
Johnson could not be reached for comment. His office phone number is out of service, and no one answered a call to the phone number listed in the court filings.
In the adoption case, the Commission on Practice determined Johnson withheld information from District Judge Gregory Todd, leading him to allow a girl to be adopted by her stepfather without her father’s permission. Johnson didn’t notify Todd that the woman’s former husband had parental rights and shared custody and did not notify the woman’s former husband about the court proceedings, the commission said.
In 2012, District Judge G. Todd Baugh ruled the girl’s mother sought the adoption to interfere with her ex-husband’s parental rights. The status of the girl’s custody wasn’t immediately clear.
In the next case, the Supreme Court ruled that Johnson “should be dealt with harshly” for ignoring numerous requests for information as it investigated two other complaints, resulting in a two-year delay in those proceedings. He was suspended for no less than seven months, with that suspension to begin on Dec. 1.
Court records indicate Johnson has been disciplined by the Supreme Court before. He was publicly censured in 2008. In February 2011, he was publicly censured and put on probation for two years, and in December 2011 he was suspended for 60 days.
Johnson was ordered to pay the costs of the investigations in the three earlier cases, which totaled over $4,700. He also was ordered to pay the costs of the current investigations, but the amounts have not been determined.