Tennessee Law Firm Sues Ex-Partner and Bank for Alleged Embezzlement
An embattled Tennessee lawyer who once defended police accused of misconduct is facing accusations of wrongdoing on two different fronts.
The Knoxville lawyer, Charles Edward “Eddie” Daniel, was once a name partner in the law firm formerly known as Daniel, Pemberton, Scott & Scott. A civil lawsuit filed last month accuses Daniel of embezzling from the firm while overseeing its finances, depositing at least $240,000 in law firm checks into his personal bank account, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
Daniel is also facing a domestic assault charge for an incident at his home on July 31 in which he is accused of pushing and shaking his wife, causing her to fall into a dog crate, the story says, He was served in the civil suit, filed by the firm now known as Pemberton & Scott, the day after he was released on $1,500 bond.
Daniel was recently in the news for obtaining a settlement on behalf of the family of a slain homecoming queen against the hotel that hired an illegal immigrant accused of killing her, the story says.
The suit (PDF filed by the News Sentinel) says Daniel’s partners first became suspicious when he abruptly left the firm at the same time that a new partner was appointed to oversee the firm’s finances. The suit also names SunTrust Bank as a defendant, which maintained accounts for both the law firm and Daniel.
The suit says the full amount of money allegedly embezzled is not known, but the firm believes the total could be more than $600,000. SunTrust Bank is accused of wrongfully allowing Daniel to deposit the money into his own account.
