By Robert Haugh
We broke the news on January 8 that Santa Clara Attorney John Mlnarik was suspended by the California State Bar Association. Mlnarik admitted to bilking a couple clients. We didn’t think it could get worse for him.
We were wrong.
SanJoseInside.com reported yesterday that the Santa Clara Rotary Club dumped Mlnarik as it’s president.
According to our sources, Mlnarik hid information about his suspension from the Rotary. It was official last November. So he kept it quiet for at least two months.
Then after our story broke, Mlnarik lobbied Rotarians to keep him in place. He even offered to take a “leave of absence.” He didn’t want to be publicly embarrassed by being dumped.
That’s bad. But wait there’s more.
Kia Friedman is one of the people who reported Mlnarik. Here’s what she told SanJoseInside.com:
“The State Bar complaint doesn’t tell the full story,” she says. “He didn’t just bill us improperly, he committed outright fraud.”
What the complaint leaves out, Friedman says, is that Mlnarik or someone under his watch allegedly forged her friend’s signature. Friedman even hired Patricia Fisher, a forensic document examiner with 30 years of experience, to prove it.
Wow. Friedman posted detailed comments (January 16) on this site and other places about Mlnarik’s dirty deeds. You can read them on our original story.
But you can’t read them on the Santa Clara Weekly. Here’s how SanJoseInside.com reports it:
Cal Bar’s account is accurate but incomplete, Friedman claims, echoing a comment she left on the Santa Clara Weekly website that disappeared shortly after Fly emailed Mlnarik Tuesday to ask him about it.
Mlnarik’s law firm is one of the few advertisers in the Weekly.
Mlnarik is also part of the leadership of the sinking Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and its PAC. They don’t have the money to pay a huge fine that’s coming.
Mlnarik is also the attorney for disgraced former Councilman Dominic Caserta who resigned after numerous sexual harassment and abuse charges against young females became public. Caserta and Mlnarik want to sue the City of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara Unified School District for $38 million!
There’s talk in the community of Mlnarik being disbarred.
This is a developing story. So stay tuned.
Mlnarik’s defunct firm is being sued by another former client. (See In re Sharon Garia v. The Mlnarik Law Group, Inc., et al.; Santa Clara County Case #19CV359369)
[…] is represented by Bill Winter of the Mlnarik Law Group. Winter had to step in for John Mlnarik because he was suspended for illegally forging clients’ signatures on credit cards. […]
We can well imagine the whimpering John Mlnarik begging his fellow Rotarians for mercy. Fortunately, they rejected him for committing acts that should be considered criminal and perhaps will be if the State Bar would hold it’s minions to even minimal legal standards.
Let’s us hope that at least one of them channeled Alec Baldwin’s character Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross who delivered this devastating challenge to his sales team: “Second Prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.”
Mlnarik who has separated many a client from money and homes got we he deserved. Steak knives are not good enough for his ilk.
Why is Mlnark’s name still listed as president on the rotary club page?