Texas Lawyer Christina Pagano Arrested and Charged for Same Act (Theft) as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He Wasn’t Arrested or Charged.
OCT 11, 2021
On July 14, 2021, CHRISTINA E. PAGANO [#07154500], of Austin, received a judgment of disbarment effective July 8, 2021.
An evidentiary panel of the District 9 Grievance Committee found that on or about January 16, 2018, Pagano was hired to represent the complainant in a Child Protective Services matter.
Thereafter, Pagano failed to keep the complainant reasonably informed about the status of the complainant’s case and failed to promptly respond to the complainant’s requests for information.
Upon termination, Pagano failed to timely withdraw from the case. Pagano further failed to provide a written response to the complainant’s disciplinary complaint.
Pagano violated Rules 1.03(a), 1.15(a)(3), and 8.04(a)(8) of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, Article X, Section 9, State Bar Rules.
Pagano was ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution and $2,318.87 in attorneys’ fees and expenses.
Austin defense lawyer charged with stealing another attorney’s iPhone
JUN 26, 2019
An Austin criminal defense lawyer is charged with theft after courthouse security cameras captured her taking a mobile phone that belongs to another defense attorney on Monday.
Christina Pagano, 66, found a black iPhone XS unoccupied on a table in the 427th district courtroom and placed it into her rolling briefcase, according to her arrest affidavit.
The phone’s owner, attorney Jackson Gorski, told deputies he used an application on his iPad to track the device’s location, but lost signal when whoever took it turned off the power.
After reviewing the security video, deputies tracked Pagano to another courtroom in the building and confronted her. She pulled out a blue iPhone that she said she keeps in her purse. But when asked about the phone in her briefcase, she stated, “don’t know how that got in there,” according to the affidavit. She added that Gorski “must have put it in there on purpose.”
When deputies asked why she powered down the device, Pagano stated it began to ring and she couldn’t make it stop, the affidavit says.
The phone, valued at approximately $1,149, was in Pagano’s possession for 30 minutes, according to the affidavit.
Pagano was charged with theft, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail.
She denied taking the phone intentionally, telling the American-Statesman on Thursday that it was “inadvertent, unconscious.” She said she has no memory of picking it up and placing it in her bag.
Gorski told the Statesman that “I think the footage will speak for itself. Other than that, I want the case to proceed its normal course like any other case would.”