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Ethics Lawyer who cited 'professional curiosity' in child-porn case won't acknowledge wrongdoing, referee says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 5, 2023, 11:34 am CST

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A suburban Tampa, Florida, lawyer has been disbarred after a referee found that he refused to acknowledge wrongdoing, despite pleading guilty in a child-pornography case.

The Florida Supreme Court disbarred lawyer Chris E. Ragano of Valrico, Florida, on Dec. 8, according to a Jan. 1 bar summary and stories by the Miami Herald and Law.com.

Ragano is the son of the late Frank Ragano, whose high-profile clients included Jimmy Hoffa, a labor union leader who was the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, according to Law.com.

Ragano pleaded guilty in December 2021 to 33 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of electronic transmission of child pornography.

The Miami Herald reports that Ragano’s plea was a “guilty best interest plea” in which the defendant maintains that he is innocent of the charges but thinks that a guilty plea is in his best interests.

Ragano was sentenced to eight years of sex offender probation and five years of state probation, to run concurrently, without an adjudication of guilt. He did not receive a prison sentence, although Tampa, Florida, TV station WFLA reported that he was credited for six months of prison time already served, according to the Miami Herald.

A referee in Ragano’s ethics case, Judge George Mark Jirotka of Pinellas County, Florida, said Ragano had failed to acknowledge his conduct was wrong. Jirotka said Ragano “intentionally purchased a computer with the sole intent to search the dark web for child pornography, carried out his plan to search the dark web for the images, and intentionally saved the images to his computer.”

In his Sept. 22 report, Jirotka cited testimony by Ragano in which he said:

• He visited the dark web to find the images because of “professional curiosity” related to a client issue. He was no longer representing the client.

• He got caught because he clicked the wrong button and downloaded images to Microsoft, rather than his computer.

• The images were “fake child porn” of children’s faces on adult bodies, an assertion contrary to a criminal report affidavit.

Ragano did not have a prior disciplinary record.

Ragano apparently hung up when the ABA Journal called for comment. He did not pick up when the ABA Journal called back and did not immediately respond to a phone message. An email address listed in disciplinary records was no longer working.

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