ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996               TAG: 9604250044
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER 

STATE BAR SUSPENDS LAWYER

The Virginia State Bar has suspended the license of a Vinton lawyer for 120 days after finding that he failed to pursue a client's appeal and then misrepresented the status of the case.

M. Dean Cranwell, who unsuccessfully challenged the suspension to the Virginia Supreme Court, said his actions were an oversight and not a deliberate misrepresentation.

"I feel that it was unjust, but the state bar has spoken," Cranwell said Wednesday. "I'm going to take my suspension and go on with my life."

The suspension stemmed from a 1990 case in Roanoke County Circuit Court, where a man was charged with throwing an object at an occupied car. The man, who was not represented by Cranwell at the time, was convicted of the reduced charge of interfering with the property rights of another.

Cranwell was appointed to represent the man in his appeal, and punishment was stayed pending the appeal.

After losing at the Virginia Court of Appeals, Cranwell filed a notice of appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court in March 1992, but never followed up on the case, according to state bar's order of suspension.

Over the next several months, he advised his client in general terms that he had not heard anything from the Supreme Court about the case.

In October, after learning that nothing had been done in the case, Cranwell's client asked for a meeting at the lawyer's Vinton office, according to the bar's order.

Cranwell then produced a letter, dated six months previously, advising his client that he would take no further action in the case unless he heard from him. But the letter never was sent, the state bar found, and Cranwell "either drafted or had someone else draft the letter after the fact in an attempt to justify not pursuing the appeal."

Cranwell, who unsuccessfully ran for Roanoke County commonwealth's attorney in 1987, had already had his license suspended for seven days before he appealed the case. The remaining 113-day suspension will take effect May 1.

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