Judge gives fake lawyer three days for contempt of court
By Marty Roney
Montgomery Advertiser
PRATTVILLE -- A woman presenting herself as an attorney Thursday morning in Autauga County Circuit Court needs a lawyer of her own after Judge Ben Fuller sentenced her to three days in jail for contempt.
Melissa Kent, of 1291 New Quarters Road in Tallassee also faces misdemeanor charges of unauthorized practice of law. She will serve the three days in the Autauga Metro Jail, before being able to post a $1,000 bond on the misdemeanor, court records show.
Her antics had the courthouse buzzing Thursday as the story was told and retold. Fuller was hearing criminal pleas when Kent told prosecutors she was an attorney representing her sister, Cathy McNelley, who was facing drug charges.
She fired her sister's court-appointed attorney, requested discovery files from the district attorney's office and appeared before Fuller before the ruse was discovered.
Kent's presence drew attention long before the jig was up.
"You get to know the lawyers, and I didn't recognize her," said District Attorney Randall Houston. "I just thought maybe she was a Montgomery lawyer who didn't practice up here much. I was sitting between (local female attorneys) Kim Kervin and Joy Booth and they didn't know her. I knew if the girl lawyers didn't know her, something was up."
Houston said Kervin and Booth noted Kent's shoes and fingernail polish were not typical of what an attorney would wear in court. When he questioned Kent, she initially told him she was a second-year law student and then, finally, admitted she had no legal training.
A surprised Houston then realized he had dealt with Kent before.
"Aren't you Melissa Rhodes? Didn't I prosecute you five years ago on dope charges?" he asked after deputies handcuffed her and placed her in the jury box with prisoners waiting for their court appearance.
"It was 1997 and I've stayed out of trouble since then," she told him.
Fuller didn't mince words when Kent appeared before him after being revealed as a fraud. Normally an easygoing jurist, he wasn't in the mood for any foolishness Thursday. He reached into his wallet and retrieved his "bar card," the documentation the Alabama Bar Association uses to certify that a person is licensed to practice law in the state.
"Are you an attorney?" he asked.
"No," Kent said.
"Do you have one of these cards which says you can practice law in this state?" the judge asked.
"No," she said.
"Then why are you wasting this court's time?" he said.
Kent said she had represented herself during her divorce and didn't know she had done anything wrong Thursday.
Meanwhile, a quick check of Kent's records showed an outstanding warrant from Pell City for failing to appear in court on a harassment charge, court records showed.
Lawyers, real ones, stuck in court all day used the events as a stress reliever.
"They charged her with impersonating a lawyer," said Andy Tampling, a defense attorney from Prattville. "... I'm afraid they're going to charge me with that same thing every time I come into the courthouse."
D. Wayne Perdue was the defense attorney Kent fired from her sister's case. Prosecutors feel the sister didn't know Kent was pulling the stunt. Perdue also took his share of good-natured ribbing from fellow attorneys.
"I had her sister on a court-appointed case," Perdue said. "You want those cases to go away. I was happy I had one less to deal with."
