Ex-lawyer cited by police after sting at his office

By Jeff German

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Just two days after the Sun reported that he was facing felony theft charges, former attorney Charles Radosevich landed in more trouble with the law.

On Tuesday, after a quick and unusual undercover sting, detectives with Metro’s Special Investigations Section issued two misdemeanor citations to Radosevich alleging he practiced law at his Hughes Center office without a license and obtained money under a false pretense.

This occurred while detectives with the department’s fraud unit were waiting for a warrant to be processed to arrest Radosevich on the theft charges.

The Sun reported Sunday that the district attorney’s office filed the felony complaint against Radosevich for allegedly stealing nearly $190,000 from people who thought they had hired him to be their attorney.

Tuesday’s sting was conducted after the Nevada State Bar asked police to investigate Radosevich for allegedly passing himself off as a licensed lawyer. He has never been one in Nevada and he was disbarred in Colorado and Nebraska.

Two Metro detectives posing as a couple went to Radosevich and asked him for legal help. The detectives paid Radosevich $200 for the services they requested and then disclosed their true identities and cited him.

The Sun also reported Sunday that police and attorneys for Radosevich’s former clients have accused him of circulating forged court documents, which were never actually filed, to gain access to client money. He has not been charged with fraud, but police are still investigating him.

Radosevich, 62, has refused to comment.

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Edward Miley is well versed in how his profession deals with a lawyer who, like himself, winds up being charged with crimes.

It turns out that for the past 12 years, Miley — who’s facing felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from an Oct. 1 altercation with his wife of 12 years, District Judge Stefany Miley — has been a member of the State Bar’s local disciplinary board.

He’s among a pool of 49 lawyers in Southern Nevada who are called upon from time to time to hand out punishments to their colleagues who have run afoul of the standards of their profession.

But now that he could be facing sanctions himself, Miley won’t be judging his peers any longer.

“I don’t intend to appoint him to anymore disciplinary panels,” attorney Jeffrey Albregts, chairman of the Southern Nevada board, said Tuesday. “I don’t think that would be beneficial or fair to everyone involved in those processes.”

Miley is in his fourth and final term as a member of the disciplinary board.

After the alleged altercation with his wife, which she said was fueled by him “drinking heavily,” she obtained a protective order barring him from the couple’s home and the Regional Justice Center, interfering with his livelihood.

But Miley may not visit the courthouse for at least the next three weeks anyway. He has told friends he will be in a rehab program until the end of the month, and his arraignment in Las Vegas Justice Court has been put off until Dec. 1.

In the meantime, the Family Court proceedings involving the Mileys have been closed to public scrutiny.

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Chief Deputy District Attorney Gloria Navarro is the latest to surface on the short list of possible successors of former U.S. District Judge Brian Sandoval, who left the bench to run for governor.

Navarro, 42, a member of the State Bar for the past 15 years, has worked in the district attorney’s civil division since January 2005. Before that she was a deputy special public defender for 3 1/2 years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will recommend a replacement for Sandoval to the Obama administration.