Tough times for bulldog lawyer Mary Frances Prevost

Mary Frances Prevost (pronounced PRAY-vo), who describes herself on her website as "California's Top Criminal & DUI Attorney," has been suspended by the California Bar for the third time. She was suspended from law practice for six months beginning November 28 because she has not passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. The state supreme court ordered her to pass it September 23 of last year. She was also suspended for periods in 2002 and 2014 for the same reason.

Prevost is frequently interviewed on local television, possibly in part because she is strikingly attractive. She is known as a bulldog-tough criminal attorney, dealing with cases related to drugs, domestic violence, DUI, sex crimes, murder, weapons, human trafficking, internet pornography, and white-collar crimes.

However, her bulldog personality offends clients who believe she cheated them, and Bar investigators and judges are looking into what they consider misbehavior.

She has been accused of not returning unearned funds to clients, misappropriating client funds, not cooperating with Bar investigations, and other transgressions. The review department of the state Bar, acting on appeals, has charged her with "multiple acts of misconduct," sending threatening emails to clients who filed complaints, giving testimony that "lacks credibility," giving testimony that was "evasive, self-contradictory, and at times sarcastic," being "grossly negligent, even reckless," and, generally mistreating clients and state Bar officials.

Prevost says that she commented on her blog that one of the prosecutors "committed misconduct," and "she has had it in for me." That was a factor in this case, she says. She wrote a blog item asking why the Bar is corrupt. "They never once prosecuted one of their own prosecutors," she says. She cannot appeal further, she says.