Bar Crawl is Indiana Lawyer’s new section that will highlight bar association news around the
state. We try to include bar association news and trends in our regular stories, but we want to include more news from specialty
and county bars. If you’d like to submit an update about your bar association or a photo from an event your bar association
has hosted to Indiana Lawyer, or if you have questions about having your bar association news included in the newspaper, please
send it to Rebecca Berfanger, rberfanger@ibj.com, along with contact information for any follow up questions at least two
weeks in advance of the issue date.
Following a car accident in early June, a St. Joseph County deputy prosecutor’s life was dramatically changed.
Since then, Geoff Spiess said he has been overwhelmed with the amount of support he has received from the legal community,
including his employer and the St. Joseph County Bar Association, which helped hold a fundraiser Aug. 8 for Spiess and his
family.
That event brought in 400 people and more than $5,000, which he said was in addition to other financial and emotional support
the family had already received.
The Mishawaka family – Geoff, a second-career attorney who was admitted to practice law in October 2008, his wife,
Jennifer, and their four children – were returning from a vacation in Atlanta, Ga., June 2 when he swerved and the car
flipped over when they were driving through Fulton County.
Geoff couldn’t remember what caused the accident, but police on the scene said he was likely swerving to avoid something
in the road, according to news reports.
Geoff, Jennifer, and daughter Hayden were air lifted to Fort Wayne from the accident site. The other three children were
taken to the hospital by ambulance.
As a result of the accident, Hayden, 15, suffered two broken ankles and a broken left wrist.
“She is out of her casts and is recovering nicely and is doing physical therapy,” Spiess said via e-mail Aug.
12.
Mallory, 12, suffered a cut on her knee that required five stitches but was otherwise fine, he said.
Taft, 8, and Tanner, who has since turned 6, were uninjured.
Geoff broke two fingers and suffered soft tissue damage and lacerations in his left hand that was crushed, he said. His
thumb and wrist are still recovering, but he said those injuries have not significantly affected his daily living. He
also had a skull fracture and internal bruising that he said, “seems to be healed.”
But Jennifer suffered the most injuries: She broke both of her tibias, both of her fibulas, her pelvis, her tailbone, her
humerus, shoulder bones, and nose. She also suffered compression fractures in several vertebrae in her lower back. Her head
injury involved bleeding on the brain. She also had numerous lacerations that were stitched and stapled.
Since the accident, a pelvic external fixator and metal pins in one leg have been removed, Geoff said. She also
has lost weight and has nerve damage in her right shin and foot.
“But overall her body is recovering slowly but steadily,” he said.
However, he added, “her tailbone is ‘anatomically out of place’ according to doctors, but her original
orthopedist and a spinal specialist ruled further surgery too risky.”
Beyond these physical injuries, Geoff said, “our biggest concern is her brain injury. She has had serious short-term
memory problems and confusion/dementia, although we have seen encouraging improvement the last week or so.”
Shortly after the accident, Geoff and Jennifer’s children stayed with Geoff’s brother in Cincinnati and returned
home to Mishawaka in mid-July.
Geoff stayed with Jennifer in Fort Wayne for the five weeks she was there after the accident and would visit the children
on weekends.
In early July, Jennifer was moved to a rehabilitation facility in Batesville. Since then, Geoff has visited her there every
weekend, except the weekend of the fundraiser.
The children saw Jennifer for the first time since the accident the weekend of July 24, and again the next weekend, he said.
“Our next step is to move her to an in-patient rehab facility, hopefully in the South Bend area, or at least closer
to home,” Geoff said.
As far as the help he’s received from the community, he said, “my reaction is to be overwhelmed with gratitude. I
am amazed at the outpouring of generosity and concern from all corners. In the legal community, I cannot say enough about
the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, where I work. People in the office took up a financial collection right away. People
took care of all sorts of details for me. …
“Numerous members of the local bar have made extremely generous financial donations, in addition to contributing at
the fundraiser. And when I see people in court, nearly everyone first asks me how we are doing before delving into whatever
business we have.”
He added his boss, St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, drove to Fort Wayne one Saturday to visit Geoff and Jennifer
at the hospital.
He also thanked Tom Walz at Hahn Walz & Knepp for handling the donations and a number of related legal matters for the
Spiess family.
The family has had a Caring Bridge website for friends and family to keep up-to-date on Jennifer’s progress at www.caringbridge.org/visit/spiess.
Neighbors of the Spiesses, Kathy Dempsey and her husband, Scott, maintain that site.
Donations are still being accepted for the Spiess Family Fund. They may be sent in care of Tom Walz, Hahn Walz & Knepp
Attorneys at Law, 509 W. Washington Ave., South Bend, IN 46601, or by calling (574) 232-5988 for more information.
“I just cannot thank everyone enough for the tremendous outpouring of thoughts and prayers, along with the assistance,”
Geoff said. “I am truly humbled and amazed by the generosity. People I have not even met have done very charitable
things. I am so very impressed by how selfless so many people have been. I don’t feel I deserve it, but I
certainly appreciate it.”•
– Rebecca Berfanger
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G. Michael Witte letter states he's suspended for three years. The case that got him suspended is identical to my estate case, including havin the Late Judge Deiter recuse himself because Newman had a conflict of interest with the judge. His Modus Operandi is nearly identical.
SIGNED BY G. MICHAEL WITTE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY INDIANA SUPREME COURT DISCIPLINARY COMMISSION DATED MAY 17, 2012.
Your 6th complaint against Lawrence T. Newman filed on 4/12/2012. On 1/31/12, the Indiana Supreme Court entered an order suspending Lawrence T. Newman’s law license for a period of three years. More important, even after three years, Lawrence Todd Newman will not get his license back unless and until he goes through a separate proceeding to prove that he is fit to practice law. This is not an easy process, and the burden is upon Lawrence T. Newman to prove by clear and convincing evidence that he is fit to return to practice.
Because of the length of Lawrence T. Newman’s license suspension and the fact he may never succeed in getting his law license reinstated, we are not opening an investigation file at this time.
Should Lawrence T. Newman seek reinstatement in the future, we will open your file and ask Lawrence T. Newman to address your grievance as part of his burden of proving fitness. We have attempted to notify Lawrence T. Newman that this will be required of him.
It may disappoint you to hear that we will be doing nothing on your grievance at this time. However, the most our office can ever accomplish is to take away a lawyer’s license to practice law. We have already done that, albeit as a result of misconduct in cases other than your own. It makes better sense for our office to focus its limited resources on cases where the lawyers are still actively practicing law.
Is there any justice in the Marion County Superior Court Civil Division? I am the unfortunate victim of a retaliatory lawsuit brought by Lawrence Todd Newman, the attorney from an estate case on which I worked as a unsupervised personal representative in 2006. The contract agreement for that case stated that the estate would be responsible for all attorney fees, but Newman refused to close the nearly insolvent estate when my duties were complete and his fees were paid. Instead, he tried to extort additional attorney fees from me by keeping the case open to address a wrongful death claim, despite the estate’s heir’s lack of interest in pursuing it and an expert doctor’s opinion that it would not be worth doing so. He also knowingly deceived me into believing that a “closing statement” was needed to close the estate, even though this requirement had actually been waived by the estate’s heir. The heir’s attorney filed a motion to have Newman removed from the case. After the court closed the probate case with prejudice (barred from further litigation) Newman illegally re-opened the case in another courtroom.
As a result of complaints filed against him for these and similar actions, Newman has been suspended from practicing law for 18 months by the Indiana Disciplinary Commission. In retaliation, he has filed suit against me demanding additional attorney fees for the 2006 estate case, despite the fact that I made no agreement stating that I would pay any fees from my own assets on behalf of the estate. This lawsuit violates the rules of ethics, due process of law, and equal protection of law. Newman has been allowed to file ridiculous pleadings at an alarming rate and has been supported by a biased court system. Judge Carroll refuses to recuse himself from the case despite the fact that, by his own admission, he intends to grant Newman sanctions regardless of the evidence. When my former counsel discovered that the previous judge on the case, Judge Sosin, was a long-time close friend of Newman’s family, Judge Carroll commented for the record during a hearing that Judge Sosin in so many words “he finds the door “was weak for recusing himself from the case as a result of this obvious conflict of interest.
This case is a public policy issue. Statutes put in place to protect unsupervised personal representatives in probate matters are being ignored. This case will affect thousands of individuals involved in probating and the personal representation of estates. Justice cannot possibly be served as long as a biased judge is allowed to defend a “vexatious litigant,” as Newman has been described by Judge Logan in Bradenton, Florida court. If there is any justice in the Marion County Superior Court Civil Division, this case against me will be dismissed with prejudice.
Every affront to decency and every style adopted by criminals is not per se a constituttional violation. Only fools believe or espouse that.
This was an unnecessary change in law, a needless fiddling with a tax that impacted very very few hoosiers, but one that erodes a tax base benefitting very many hoosiers. Just because some people wanted to chalk up a "tax cut" on their legislative brag-list, and didnt give a fig about replacing the revenue any other way. Really stupid. I am a republican my whole life and this just shames me like hell. I have to use a fake name over this because I know my fellow republicans are all brain washed over tax cutting too.