A criminal defense attorney recently convicted of criminal charges and facing a new set of charges may resume representing clients who are being prosecuted by the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

Anthony J. Sineni III, 52, of Standish was sentenced on Jan. 5 for assault and disorderly conduct, with terms that him to be supervised by the DA’s office for the next two years.

But because the supervision arrangement required Sineni to pay a fee to the DA’s office, Justice Roland Cole issued a temporary order on Jan. 16 limiting Sineni’s criminal practice, saying the fee posed a potential conflict. (The case against Sineni was prosecuted by the Maine Attorney General’s Office.)

Sineni’s attorney, Christopher Largay, and a prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Paul Rucha, have since modified Sineni’s sentence by eliminating the fee requirement, prompting Cole to lift the temporary limits on Sineni’s practice.

“I thought it would be taken care of very quickly. It’s taken quite a bit of time,” Cole said from the bench in the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland on Tuesday.

After Sineni’s sentencing, he was arrested Jan. 9 on charges of violating a protection from abuse order and conditions of his release. He is free while the second case is pending.

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Sineni’s first case drew national attention because of an unusual ruling by another judge. Judge Jeffrey Moskowitz tried to restrict the media from reporting witness testimony against Sineni or repeating anything that Sineni said in court as a defendant. The Portland Press Herald defied the order, and Moskowitz apologized and rescinded the order.

Sineni still faces several complaints filed by the Board of Overseers of the Bar, the board’s executive director, Jacqueline Rogers, said Tuesday.

Those complaints are now being reviewed by a three-member panel to decide whether they should be dismissed, dismissed with a warning or brought before a second three-person panel in a public hearing, Rogers said.

 


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