STATE BAR SUES LOCAL LAWYER CONVICTED OF BUYING CHILD

The Dallas Morning News

October 22, 1986

A Dallas lawyer who is appealing his conviction and seven-year prison sentence for purchasing a child in an adoption scheme was sued Tuesday by the State Bar of Texas, which is seeking to suspend him from practicing law.

The suit against 61-year-old Robert I. Kingsley, filed in state District Judge Catherine Crier's court, asks that Kingsley be suspended until his appeal of an Oct. 3 child-purchasing conviction is resolved.

State bar rules allow for the disbarment of lawyers convicted of felonies involving "moral turpitude.' State bar assistant general counsel Steven M. Smoot said the organization would strip Kingsley of his license if a Dallas jury's conviction is upheld.

Kingsley's attorney, Michael P. Gibson, said Kingsley probably will challenge the lawsuit. Gibson and prosecutors have been discussing how to handle two other child-purchasing charges against Kingsley as well as two against his wife, Mary Zoe Kingsley.

On Oct. 9, a jury in state District Judge Gerry Meier's court sentenced Kingsley to seven years in prison and fined him $5,000 after finding him guilty of the third-degree felony.

The trial centered on Kingsley's having paid a 22-year-old mother more than $2,000 in living expenses during her pregnancy in 1984 in exchange for her baby. During the punishment phase, prosecutors cited several similar cases of adoptions Kingsley arranged for money.