North Carolina Bar Suspends License of Lawyer Who Defrauded Death-Row Exonerees

The North Carolina state bar has sus­pend­ed the law license of a lawyer whose preda­to­ry rep­re­sen­ta­tion of two intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled death-row exonerees defraud­ed them of hun­dreds of thou­sands of dollars. 

After a mul­ti-day dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing begin­ning March 15, 2021, a three-mem­ber pan­el of the North Carolina State Bar Disciplinary Hearing Commission sus­pend­ed Patrick Megaro​’s license to prac­tice law in the state for five years. The pan­el also ordered Megaro to repay half-broth­ers Henry McCollum (pic­tured, left) and Leon Brown (pic­tured, right) $250,000 in fees he had charged them in con­nec­tion with their appli­ca­tion for com­pen­sa­tion for their wrong­ful con­vic­tions for the 1983 rape and mur­der of an 11-year-old girl. 

The men — whose IQs in the 50s place them in the bot­tom third of a per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion in intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing — were sen­tenced to death after false­ly con­fess­ing to the mur­der dur­ing hours of coer­cive police inter­ro­ga­tions con­duct­ed with­out coun­sel or their par­ents being present. McCollum was 19 years old at the time and Brown was 15. Both were sen­tenced to death. 

The broth­ers were exon­er­at­ed by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission in 2014 after DNA evi­dence proved their inno­cence. McCollum had spent near­ly 31 years on death row. Brown, whose death sen­tence was over­turned after nine years on death row, was serv­ing a life sentence. 

Megaro became McCollum’s and Brown’s lawyer in March 2015, after two women who claimed to be advo­cat­ing on behalf of the broth­ers per­suad­ed them to fire the lawyers who had already pre­pared and filed their com­pen­sa­tion appli­ca­tions and replace them with Megaro’s law firm. The broth­ers received the statu­to­ri­ly man­dat­ed com­pen­sa­tion awards of $750,000, but Megaro — who the com­plaint says did vir­tu­al­ly no work on their com­pen­sa­tion case — took $250,000 in fees from each man. Within sev­en months, McCollum was out of mon­ey and tak­ing out preda­to­ry loans with 19% inter­est com­pound­ed every 6 months. Megaro also nego­ti­at­ed a pro­posed set­tle­ment of the broth­ers’ wrong­ful pros­e­cu­tion law­suit in which he was to receive $400,000 of a $1 million payment.

McCollum’s and Brown’s intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, the bar com­plaint argued, made them espe­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble to exploita­tion by Megaro.

North Carolina State Bar attor­neys argued dur­ing the dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing that Megaro should be dis­barred. The hear­ing also includ­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from cap­i­tal defense lawyer Ken Rose, who had rep­re­sent­ed McCollum for more than two decades and had assist­ed in the broth­ers’ exon­er­a­tions. Rose explained how Megaro and his asso­ciates had pushed Rose off of the case by con­vinc­ing McCollum that Rose and his oth­er lawyers, who had been rep­re­sent­ing McCollum with­out charge, ​“weren’t being fair with him.”

Rose explained that McCollum ​“was eas­i­ly manip­u­lat­ed. He had very lit­tle under­stand­ing of things like man­ag­ing mon­ey. He had very lit­tle under­stand­ing about peo­ple who might not want to serve his best inter­est. He could not han­dle his financial affairs.”

Rose con­tin­ued to remain in con­tact with McCollum even after Megaro took over the case. ​“I felt so bad for him,” said Rose about McCollum. ​“I felt like he was a vic­tim over and over and over again.”

The bar com­plaint alleged 18 instances in which it said Megaro had vio­lat­ed the state’s rules of pro­fes­sion­al con­duct, includ­ing charg­ing ​“an improp­er fee,” reveal­ing ​“con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion” about McCollum and Brown, engag­ing in ​“con­duct involv­ing dis­hon­esty, fraud, deceit, or mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion,” and fail­ing ​“to rep­re­sent McCollum and Brown with com­pe­tence or diligence.”

McCollum and Brown received new lawyers in 2018 who are rep­re­sent­ing them with­out charge. A fed­er­al civ­il rights law­suit filed on the broth­ers’ behalf is expect­ed to go to tri­al lat­er this year.

Megaro is still licensed to prac­tice law in Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Washington.