CHARLESTON – The state Supreme Court has disbarred a Huntington attorney following similar action in New York and Washington, D.C.
In a February 16 memorandum decision, the court reciprocated the disbarment of Anthony J. Zappin based on a recommendation from the state Lawyer Disciplinary Board.
Zappin was disbarred in New York in 2018. The LDB filed its recommendation for disbarment in West Virginia based on the New York action. Zappin objected, claiming he was denied due process in New York.
Zappin
“Upon review, we find that the record and law support the recommendation of the (Hearing Panel Subcommittee), and, accordingly, we impose the reciprocal discipline of disbarment,” the opinion states.
The facts of the case begin with Zappin’s divorce, which was filed in New York in 2014. The divorce and custody battle was contentious, and it resulted in sanctions against Zappin.
“Zappin’s conduct surrounding his filings with the New York court, his attack on the child’s attorney and his treatment of the various judges involved in his case resulted in the court finding that he had ‘done everything in his power to undermine the legal process and use his law license as a tool to threaten, bully and intimidate,’ behavior that ‘call(ed) into question his fitness to practice law,’” the opinion states.
During the ensuing custody trial, the New York court found that Zappin had repeatedly committed acts of domestic violence against his wife, had knowingly introduced falsified evidence in the form of altered text messages, had presented misleading testimony through expert witnesses, engaged in acts that showed disrespect for the court and counsel, set up a fake website about an attorney and posting derogatory comments about the attorney on it and filing baseless a disciplinary complaint against a court-appointed psychiatric expert witness.
It said he also sent text messages to his ex-wife, also an attorney, threatening her with loss of her law license and professional ruin. It said Zappin also accused his father-in-law of being a child sexual abuser, and he engaged in frivolous and abusive litigation against his wife, her parents and her attorney.
After he was disbarred in New York, Zappin notified the West Virginia State Bar. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed a notice to reciprocate on March 21, 2018. After a hearing, the HPS recommended reciprocal punishment. Zappin objected, and the case was set for oral argument.
Zappin was represented by counsel at the disciplinary hearing, but the attorney later withdrew his representation of Zappin.
“Zappin provides no legal authority to support his position that reciprocal discipline … is unconstitutional,” the West Virginia opinion states.
Zappin is no stranger being a party in legal action.
In 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York threw out Anthony Zappin’s 2016 lawsuit against Judge Matthew F. Cooper. In that lawsuit, Zappin alleged that Cooper distributed a defamatory $10,000 sanctions order to several media outlets during Zappin’s custody battle.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla determined that Zappin could not pursue the case without attempting to relitigate whether the findings in the sanctions motion were accurate. Faillia wrote that the material factual issues decided in the sanctions decision and affirmed on appeal are identical to the factual issues underlying each of the plaintiff’s five claims.
In September 2015, Cooper sanctioned Zappin and ordered him to pay $10,000 for bullying behavior during his divorce proceedings. Cooper had found that Zappin had been verbally abusive toward another judge involved in an earlier phase of the case and had attempted to prevent an attorney appointed to represent the interests if his son from doing her job.
Zappin claimed the decision was a stunt and intended to drive media attention to the case. After the decision was made public, Zappin was fired from Mintz Levin in New York. The sanctions decision was later upheld on appeal.
Zappin also filed suit against two media outlets he claimed published defamatory stories about him. Both of those cases also were dismissed. His two cases against Cooper involved the sanctions order and an alleged incident wherein he claimed Cooper spat on him when they ran into each other on a sidewalk in Manhattan.
In 2017, Zappin was arrested for filing a false police report after investigators ruled that the spitting incident hadn’t actually occurred. That complaint claims Zappin “gratuitously reported to a law enforcement officer and agency the alleged occurrence of an offense and incident which did not in fact occur and he knew the information reported, conveyed and circulated was false and baseless.”
In a 2018 lawsuit, Zappin alleges that his ex-wife, Claire Comfort, along with her attorney, Robert Wallack of the Wallack Firm; Harriet Newman Cohen of Cohen Rabin Stine Schumann; and Comprehensive Family Services all exploited Zappin and Comfort’s child during a custody battle.
Zappin and Comfort dated briefly beginning in October 2012 and Comfort became pregnant shortly thereafter. In May 2013, they were married. Their son was born in October 2013.
On Nov. 6, 2013, Comfort’s parents flew from Washington to assist Comfort with the child while Zappin went out of town for work. On Nov. 10, 2013, Comfort left with her parents and the nearly eight-week old infant and the custody battle ensued. In 2016, Zappin and Comfort’s divorce was finalized and he lost custody of their child.
Zappin was admitted to practice law in West Virginia in 2010. His address on file with the state Bar is in South Carolina.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number 18-0250