THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270493
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
A Smithfield lawyer whose law license was suspended in March for six months was sentenced to two years of supervised probation Wednesday on one count of possession of cocaine.
Isle of Wight Circuit Court Judge Rodham T. Delk withheld a finding of guilty for lawyer David J. Allmond, 41, sentencing him under first-offender status, which allows a charge to be dismissed if the offender completes the terms of probation.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Johnnie E. Mizelle told the court: ``All of us sensed that something was amiss. We didn't know what it was. All of us arrived a little too late to help.''
Mizelle said Allmond had tried to get treatment for cocaine addiction on three occasions, but his attempts failed, Mizelle said, because the treatments were only three weeks long and on an outpatient basis.
Allmond's trouble began last October, when the Virginia State Bar issued a public reprimand after an investigation concluded he mismanaged funds from a loan closing.
In May, an Isle of Wight grand jury indicted him on one count of possession of cocaine.
The charge came after a deputy sheriff was sent to arrest Allmond in March at his residence for failing to appear in an Arlington court. He also was served a summons because he didn't appear in court to represent clients in Newport News and Suffolk.
When the deputy searched Allmond, a pipe containing cocaine residue was found in a suit-coat pocket.
Since Allmond's drug charge, he has signed a two-year contract with the William J. Farley Institute for Recovery in Hampton, where he is undergoing drug treatment, promising that he will stay off drugs. This contract ends Aug. 26, 1996.
Allmond also is volunteering weekly at Norfolk Psychiatric Hospital, helping others with their drug problems.
A felony conviction could have cost Allmond his law license, Patricia Rios, clerk of the disciplinary system for the Virginia Bar Association, said Wednesday. However, because the judge did not actually find Allmond guilty of the drug charge, Rios said, she would not comment on the outcome of Allmond's sentencing.
``Currently,'' she said, ``his license is active but not in good standing. He cannot practice law right now. The reason his license is not in good standing has nothing to do with the six-month suspension. It has to do with administrative reasons.'' Allmond's six-month suspension ended Sept. 15.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARREST TRIAL SENTENCING by CNB