A murder suspect and a pill mill doctor are among Miami metro area attorneys disciplined
The monthly Florida Bar list of attorneys disciplined by the state Supreme Court numbered only seven, but South Florida accounted for three of that small amount.
In alphabetical order...
Mariano Gonzalez, Sunrise
South Miami-Dade resident Anthony Diaz hired Mariano Gonzalez (admitted to the Florida Bar in 1993) to handle a civil matter that was filed in Oct. 2020. In July 2022, Diaz wrote the Bar, “Mr. Gonzalez had my case dismissed, and never followed up with me. Had I not done due diligence, my case would be dismissed with prejudice on Sept. 10, 2022, giving me no chance at recuperating my money.”
A July 20, 2022 letter from the Bar gave Gonzalez until Aug. 4, 2022 to respond to Diaz’s complaint. Receiving no response, the Bar tried with an Aug. 25, 2022 email, asking for an answer by Sept. 6. On Sept. 6, Gonzalez emailed, “ Because of my recent, hectic trial schedule, I am requesting an extension until tomorrow and will contact you tomorrow morning to discuss this matter in further detail.”
Bar attorney Keri Joseph gave Gonzalez the day, but reminded Gonzalez that there needed to be an answer in writing.
Joseph gave Gonzalez a day and he took several. Joseph emailed him on Sept. 14 to say, we can talk, but you need to have something to me in writing by Sept. 20 and that’s the last gift of time.
As of June 8, Gonzalez hadn’t answered the Bar. A 54-year-old Mariano Ramon Gonzalez answered Broward County court on July 14 with a no contest plea after getting caught pushing his Tesla to 90 mph in an Interstate 595 express lane. Online court records say Gonzalez still owes $208 from that.
No place has listed Gonzalez among the dead. So, as of Thursday, Gonzalez is suspended until he responds to the complaint.
Brandon Labiner, Boca Raton
When an attorney files for disciplinary revocation with leave for readmission and that petition is accepted, the Florida Bar discipline cases against the attorney disappear. Criminal and civil cases aren’t affected. In exchange, the attorney accepts what the state Supreme Court says is “tantamount to disbarment” for five years. The attorney can then apply for readmission to the Bar.
Brandon Labiner (admitted 2016) first filed for disciplinary revocation with leave for readmission on June 30. Labiner was under emergency suspension after being accused of stealing from his mother’s trust account. Another discipline matter concerned a 2022 arrest in Broward on a DUI charge.
Labiner modified his disciplinary revocation petition in August, while in Palm Beach County Jail, where he’ll lay his head until his trial on a first degree murder charge. He was arrested after the July 1 deadly shooting of the former business partner who brought the trust account accusation to the Florida Bar: his father, Paul Labiner.
READ MORE: Florida lawyer filed for disbarment. He’s accused of murdering his father the next day
Now, the petition is for revocation without leave for readmission.
This means Labiner, 35, is accepting, in effect, permanent disbarment. The Florida Bar discipline cases against him concerning the trust account, DUI arrest and, now, murder charge disappear. But the criminal matters from the DUI and murder arrests remain.
Ronald Lubetsky, Deerfield Beach
Dr. Ronald Lubetsky was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2002, four years after he became a licensed medical doctor in the state. Lubetsky remains a medical doctor and an attorney, albeit a doctor and an attorney with suspended licenses, while also being a federal prisoner after being convicted of unlawfully dispensing oxycodone (five counts) and unlawfully dispensing oxycodone and morphine (two counts).
Lubetsky, 64, is scheduled to feel free again on Jan. 19, 2027. He’s appealing his convictions.
Court documents say Lubetsky slung pills out of ProCare Health Center, which state records place at 1380 NE 183rd St. in North Miami-Dade.
“There were approximately 30 visits by the confidential source and the undercover officer during which the defendant dispensed narcotics without a lawful basis,” federal prosecutors said in sentencing documents. “There were repeated entries of false data in legally required medical records kept on the premises. There was an enormous number of dangerously high dosage levels of narcotics dispensed by the defendant, and the defendant knew about a number of his patients getting arrested or being sent to prison.”
Lubetsky’s suspended pending further disciplinary action.
