Disbarred Defense Attorney Charged With Shoplifting

From abajournal.com: A disbarred Dallas criminal defense lawyer has been charged with shoplifting from a Nordstrom’s department store.

Catherine Shelton, 59, is accused of trying to walk out of the store with a designer handbag worth nearly $1,200, two shirts and a candle, the Dallas Morning News reports.

A store manager refused to say whether a $1,195 purse on display by designer Marc Jacobs is the handbag Shelton is accused of stealing.

The newspaper reports that Shelton has had numerous run-ins with the law. She was convicted of aggravated assault for shooting a former boyfriend and for assaulting a former friend, the account says.

Civil suits claimed she was responsible for two different murders, but both suits were dropped and Shelton was never charged, the story says.

Shelton has been disbarred three times, most recently in May, the newspaper reports. Her license was reinstated once because she was not properly notified of an upcoming hearing and another time because paperwork was missing in the court file.

The most recent disbarment was for failing to perform legal work for clients, being late to hearings, and misrepresenting herself as an immigration lawyer, the story says. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]