Augusta lawyer pleas down from felony rape to misdemeanors
12:00 pm, June 12th, 2012
The Augusta Chronicle reported that trial lawyer Joseph Neal Jr. has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service at a waste water treatment plant and three years of probation in a plea bargain that reduced a felony rape charge to misdemeanors.
The plea deal followed a morning of testimony from an 18-year-old baby sitter who claimed she was sexually assaulted Dec. 16 by Neal, 43, and his now ex-wife, the Chronicle reported. The newspaper said Augusta Superior Court Judge James Blanchard called the sewage treatment plant sentence “in keeping with the conduct in this case.” The misdemeanors include furnishing alcohol to someone under 21, possession of marijuana and disorderly conduct. The disorderly conduct charge was based on text messages he sent to the victim in which he allegedly described himself as a “sex god,” and said, “You can be our babysitter and sex slave LOL.”
The website of Neal Law Office describes Neal, an Augusta native and son of a trial lawyer, as a former assistant district attorney for the Augusta Judicial Circuit from 1993 to 1996 who prosecuted 1,000 felony cases and tried 100 of them before juries. In 1996, Neal took his experience into private practice, first with his father and then, starting in 2000, with his own firm, specializing in personal injury and wrongful death.
Neal’s bar listing shows he was admitted in 1993 after graduating from Mercer University Law School.
Contributor: Katheryn Hayes Tucker in Criminal Cases, Georgia County Courts, Legal ethics | subscribe to rss | 
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June 18th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
I’m curious why no mention was made of any putative attorney licensing ramifications resulting from the plea – i.e. does Mr. Neal face any risk of losing his GA law license/Bar membership as a consequence? I have no opinion one way or the other [without knowing a lot more about the case] in this particular instance, but If I were to opine on the topic, I would say that I generally believe one’s private life and alleged “bad acts” should be completely separate and distinct from one’s professional endeavors/licensure, and that barring the most unusual circumstances, one’s legal “troubles” (assuming they are not directly related to the representation of a specific client) should have no bearing on one’s ability to practice law.
July 12th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
An attorney’s “private” acts are NOT separate and distinct from his professional licensure when such acts involve moral turpitude… I would refer you to Georgia’s Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 8.4.
March 31st, 2013 at 9:47 pm
Julie, do you not know the meaning of the word “opine”? It means to offer an OPINION. As is clearly evident from my original post/comment, I was explicitly NOT referring to the Rules [insofar the issue germane to this discussion - i.e. the second half of my comment], but rather my PERSONAL OPINION on the matter. I know very well what the Rules are, thank you very much, but I was OPINING that, to the extent this charge MIGHT be considered a crime of moral turpitude, I do not agree that it should have a bearing on his licensure. Said yet another way, I do not believe that one’s guilt or conviction of a sex crime is in any way indicative of his or her competency in the practice of law (though I am aware of the other ostensible justifications for the Rule).
April 26th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
This sounds like a rebellious baby sitter meets the older man scenario. Given the above article, it doesn’t sound there was force, but more like a night of drinking, smoking pot, rather unique text messages, and who knows what else. No force involved, no trauma, no medical evaluation at the ER. This doesn’t excuse the attorneys conduct, but given the actual crime plead to, I would honestly hope if the girl was forcibly raped, then far more than 100 hours of community service would be dictated. No doubt if an attorney committed forcible rape, such good PR for the DA would not be passed up and Nancey Grace would be setting up outside the court house.