Patrick Boulac faces new criminal charges

By JEFF PARROTT
South Bend Tribune Staff Writer

The Indiana Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a local attorney, finding that he failed to comply with terms of his probationary status.

But the attorney, Patrick Boulac, already had quit his practice — without notifying some of his clients.

“He took my money and disappeared,” said client Doug Simons, of Mishawaka. “He wouldn’t return my phone calls. I left him like 30 or 40 phone messages. One day his phone was disconnected.”

Boulac’s troubles started in October 2004 when he was charged with felony residential entry for breaking into his neighbor’s home in Granger. Boulac, 41, told police he had been having a dispute with the neighbor, and, for some reason, wanted to trigger the neighbor’s alarm system.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jerome Frese agreed to treat it as a misdemeanor, sentencing him to time served, according to court records.

Because of the conviction, the Supreme Court in December 2007 placed Boulac’s license on probation for two years. A condition of the probation was that he complete the court’s Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, or JLAP, which helps attorneys address problems related to mental illness or substance abuse.

But in October of this year, the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission asked the high court to revoke the probation and suspend his license because Boulac had failed to make required contacts with his JLAP monitor.

JLAP also received reports from an unnamed St. Joseph County judge that Boulac had abandoned his office and was failing to appear for court hearings, according to court records.

Four days after the disciplinary commission filed its motion in October, Boulac was arrested again. This time, police were called to his home on a report that he was despondent.

An officer arrived at the home and, through a living room window, saw Boulac smoking from a pipe, according to court records. When he and another officer entered the home and suspected that Boulac was smoking marijuana in the pipe, the officers tried to arrest him. He resisted and put one of the officers in a headlock, prosecutors allege in court records.

The other officer stunned Boulac with his Taser and they managed to arrest him. The officer received treatment at a hospital for minor injuries.

Boulac spent five days in jail before bonding out and was charged with felony resisting law enforcement and misdemeanor counts of possessing marijuana and paraphernalia. He has a Feb. 25 trial date.

Boulac had been renting office space in the Tower Building, 218 W. Washington Ave., from attorney Stephen Drendall.

Drendall told The Tribune that Boulac stopped coming to work in June, and told him he wanted to close down his practice so he could “pursue other interests.” Drendall declined to elaborate, but said he went in and boxed up “dozens” of Boulac’s client files.

“I don’t know how many of those were active cases,” Drendall said. “He left them unattended. It’s definitely unfortunate, having decided he didn’t want to practice anymore, that he didn’t wind things down in a more responsible way, because there is a way to do that.”

Simons, who had hired Boulac to defend him in a child support delinquency case, was one of at least two clients who filed complaints with the disciplinary commission. Boulac never replied to those complaints, according to commission records.

The Tribune could find no publicly listed phone number for Boulac. Attorney Mary Ann Boulac, his aunt, said she contacted him on The Tribune’s behalf, and he told her that his Mishawaka attorney, Gary Griner, had advised him not to comment.

Griner did not return calls seeking comment.

The Supreme Court recently suspended Boulac’s license for at least six months, with no automatic reinstatement, meaning he will have to reapply for his law license if he ever wants to resume practice.