NEW HANOVER COUNTY — County commissioner chair Julia Olson-Boseman has been given somewhat of a reprieve from the N.C. State Bar in light of ongoing legal issues. Through her attorney, Olson-Boseman signed Wednesday a motion asking the bar to allow the court to lift her arrest order for 21 days while she provides all requested documents.
The government agency that oversees regulating the state’s legal profession has agreed.
The bar has been asking for the paperwork since filing a formal injunction earlier this year in March; the bar alleges Olson-Boseman mismanaged at least $9,000 in clients’ funds. The motion provided to Port City Daily by Olson-Boseman’s attorney, Joshua Walthall, noted the chairwoman “respectfully asks the court” to stay out of jail to “care for her 12-year-old son.”
READ MORE: Olson-Boseman a no-show per courts, requests State Bar lift arrest order
After having missed two court dates, June 29 and July 18, Judge Norlan Graves held the county chair in contempt of court. Olson-Boseman had a deadline of Friday, July 22, to turn over financial statements from her former law practice. She was first licensed in 1993 and said she shuttered her office in January 2021.
The judge ordered her to turn herself in to the Wake County Detention Center to begin spending weekends in jail for 90 days if she could not provide the requested information.
Olson-Boseman was in Italy vacationing with her family for two weeks and did not supply the paperwork. Nor did she appear in Wake County by the deadline, as confirmed by both the Wake County clerk and detention center on Monday, July 25.
According to reporting from WHQR, the chair’s wife told the outlet Olson-Boseman changed her flight plans to leave Rome for Newark on Friday, July 22. The motion, filed Wednesday and notarized July 27, noted the commissioner chair “went to the American Embassy where she is currently staying.”
Port City Daily reached out to the councilwoman and her attorney Thursday morning for clarification but did not hear back before press.
The motion also states because of her travels, Olson-Boseman could not find a notary to effectively authorize her attorney to access the bank records and request all the paperwork needed.
Olson-Boseman used a mobile notary, which “while not possibly effective for pleadings in a North Carolina court, is hopefully sufficient for the banks holding the documents the Bar is seeking,” according to the motion.
An online notary from Harris County, Texas, signed her paperwork.
Documents submitted to PCD show the N.C. State Bar is asking for Olson-Boseman to produce:
- All bank statements, with canceled checks for her First Citizens Bank account for July to October 2019
- All deposit slips and deposited items made to her First Citizens Bank account
- Reports from each monthly and quarterly reconciliation, monthly bank statements and deposit slips from her First National Bank account
- Identify each bank account where deposited funds were disbursed to herself or her law firm
- Identification of each bank account into which three specific checks were deposited, as well as the amounts withdrawn November 8, 2021
- All monthly bank statements with canceled checks from January 2019 through present
When the motion was filed, First Citizens Bank had not responded to requests for the necessary paperwork. First National Bank did supply Olson-Boseman with documents, which Walthall submitted to the bar.
Olson-Boseman is asking to surrender her law license as punishment, acknowledging she failed to comply with the bar’s request in a timely manner.
Though the politician said she closed her law practice over a year ago, court documents indicate she had a bank account for the practice active through November 2021, holding roughly $9,000. She allegedly did not know which clients the funds belonged to and disbursed the money to herself.
The motion to lift her arrest order states: “Ms. Boseman has now submitted a response to each of the inquiries” requested by the bar and also acknowledges there may be follow-up questions.
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