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John C. Huddleston (WSBA No. 18942, admitted 1989), of Seattle and Everett, has been disbarred, following a hearing, by order of the Supreme Court, effective April 8, 1999. The discipline is based upon his using misleading and false statements to obtain magazine publisher customer lists, and using these lists to solicit unauthorized subscription renewal fees using false statements.
In 1990 and 1991, Mr. Huddleston started Northwest Subscription Service and Pinnacle Subscription Service, businesses purporting to be magazine tele-marketing services. Knowing that magazine publishers rented their subscriber lists for pre-approved mail marketing, Mr. Huddleston created a "product." He used a non-existent company name and created a flyer advertising an oak towel rack. Mr. Huddleston did not intend to mail the flyers or manufacture the products. He testified that he intended to "trick" the publishers into providing him their customer lists. Mr. Huddleston obtained approximately 300,000 customer names. Each customer list stated that it was to be used for a one-time mailing only.
Using the publishers’ customer lists, Mr. Huddleston and his agents (Huddle-ston) contacted the customers and solicited subscription renewals. Huddleston convinced the customers that the agents were authorized to solicit renewals, and falsely told the customers that if they did not renew immediately, the subscription prices would increase. Huddleston collected the renewal funds directly, retaining 75 to 85 percent of the funds, and forwarding the remainder to publishing clearinghouses. Mr. Huddleston admitted that he deprived the magazine publishers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The publishers received many complaints about Huddleston and contacted him, requesting that he stop his unauthorized solicitation of their customers. Mr. Huddleston used many deceptive means to continue his business, including giving false and misleading information about how he obtained the customer lists and changing the companies’ names. During a lawsuit brought by a publisher, Mr. Huddleston twice filed bankruptcy petitions the week prior to the scheduled trial date. On the day the Court entered a non-dischargeable $825,000 judgment against Mr. Huddleston, he filed articles to incorporate his law practice and transferred assets to the corporation. Mr. Huddleston entered a payment plan with the publisher and made all required payments.
Mr. Huddleston’s conduct violated Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) 8.4(a), violating RPCs, or doing so through the acts of others; 8.4(b), committing criminal acts that reflect adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer; and 8.4(c), engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. His conduct also violated RCW 9A.56.020-040, theft by deception and 18 U.S.C. 1341 and 1343, mail fraud. Mr. Huddle-ston’s conduct also violated his Oath of Attorney. For additional information on this case, please see In re Huddleston, 137 Wn.2d 560 (1999).
Kurt Bulmer represented Mr. Huddle-ston. Maria Regimbal, Peter Jarvis and Kathryn Milam represented the Bar Association. The hearing officer was Jack J. Cullen.
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