LEWISTON — The U.S. District Court has denied a request from former Lewiston lawyer Charles Williams to be admitted to the federal bar.

Williams was disbarred from practicing law in Maine in 2004 and, to be admitted to the federal bar to try cases in Maine, a prerequisite is that Williams be a member in good standing of the bar in Maine.

In his petition to be admitted to the federal bar, Williams argued that the federal court should not let the findings of the Maine court to disbar him be a consideration in its decision.

According to the federal decision written by Justice John Woodcock Jr., a lawyer who has been disbarred by another court is subject to the same discipline in federal court and cannot be admitted to practice in federal court if “under any order of disbarment, suspension or any other discipline in any court of record in the United States.”

The District Court ruling is the last of a number of court orders denying Williams’ petitions to be readmitted to the practice of law after his 2004 disbarment.

Most recently, in September 2009, Williams filed a petition to be reinstated to the Maine bar, but his petition was denied by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in May 2010.

Williams filed his petition to be admitted to the federal bar in September 2010 and appealed the Maine law court’s ruling upholding his disbarment last November.

Williams graduated from law school in 1998 and was admitted to the Maine bar in 1999. He was disbarred from practicing law in Maine in 2004 after a two-day hearing before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. During that hearing, the court heard details of 28 complaints against Williams, including a complaint that Williams forced a client to perform sexual acts, failed to return phone calls and charged excessive fees.

Williams did not attend that disbarment hearing and, in a statement before the court, Associate Supreme Court Justice Paul L. Rudman described Williams as dangerous and said the disbarment served the purpose of protecting others from becoming victims of his malpractice.

In his ruling Monday, District Court Justice Woodcock remarked that Williams’ actions during his recent petition to be admitted to the federal bar demonstrated a lack of understanding of the law, raising concern about his ability to properly represent his clients.

In the summer of 2001, police arrested Williams as he was driving away from his law practice on Park Street, and charged him with driving with a suspended license. In the succeeding two years, a number of Williams’ clients made formal complaints against the lawyer and, in 2002, he was ordered to shut down his law practice. A year later, he was ordered to hand his client files over to the Board of Overseers of the Bar.

In the course of the Williams bar investigation, the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection paid 10 claims totaling $24,275 filed against Williams, and the Board of Overseers of the Bar incurred more than $5,000 in investigation and witness fees.

After his disbarment in Maine, Williams moved to Georgia and applied for a teaching certificate. On that application, he was asked whether he had ever had a professional license revoked and he answered no. According to federal court records, when the state of Georgia discovered Williams’ disbarment in Maine, it revoked his certificate to teach.

Williams appealed that revocation to the Georgia Supreme Court, but the state’s decision was upheld.

Williams, who represented himself in the District Court case, now resides in Abington, Mass.

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