Lawyer suspended after unintentionally shooting his brother during ‘horseplay with a gun’
Ethics
Lawyer suspended for unintentionally shooting brother during ‘horseplay’ with gun
February 6, 2025, 12:44 pm CST
A lawyer in Boca Raton, Florida, has been suspended for 10 days after he unintentionally shot his brother in the biceps during “horseplay.” (Image from Shutterstock)
A lawyer in Boca Raton, Florida, has been suspended for 10 days after he unintentionally shot his brother in the biceps during “horseplay. “
Florida lawyer Albert V. Medina’s suspension is effective Feb. 10, according to Florida Bar News, the Palm Beach Post and the Legal Profession Blog.
Medina’s conditional guilty plea for consent judgment in the ethics case, filed with the Florida Supreme Court in December, had details on the allegations.
In October 2022, Medina retrieved a gun from another room while engaged in “horseplay” with his brother, the document said. Medina pulled trigger, believing that the gun wasn’t loaded. Medina’s younger brother was shot through the biceps. Medina and his brother said the injury was unintentional.
An arrest report obtained by BocaNewsNow said Medina had called police “frantically requesting an ambulance” and repeatedly saying he didn’t know that there was a bullet in the gun. Medina’s older brother gave a sworn police statement saying Medina had gotten the gun for a joke and pointed it at him before pulling the trigger. Medina told police he and his younger brother would “play around” with the gun all the time and point it in each other’s faces as a joke. He did not realize that the gun was loaded and applied a belt as a tourniquet to his brother’s arm after the shooting.
Medina’s brother later changed his mind and said he wanted a prosecution, then changed his mind again and said he did not. The brother signed a sworn statement stating that the incident was not intentional. The criminal case was resolved in December 2023, with Medina’s plea and adjudication of guilt to the misdemeanor offense of culpable negligence causing injury to another.
Medina has been a member of the bar since 2014 and has no prior discipline. Following the accidental shooting, Medina underwent outpatient trauma therapy.
Florida lawyer David Bill Rothman represented Medina in the ethics case. He did not respond to an email from the ABA Journal seeking comment.
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