Disbarred former Forsyth County attorney indicted for failing to register as sex offender

A former Forsyth County attorney was indicted on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender, adding a criminal case to the disciplinary fallout that already ended his law license in Georgia. Richard Linwood Parsons is the attorney named in the Georgia Supreme Court’s July 7 disbarment order.

The Supreme Court’s per curiam opinion identified Parsons as State Bar No. 882961 and said he had been a member of the State Bar since 2012. The court acted after a special master recommended disbarment in a disciplinary matter involving Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 8.4(a)(2).

The sex-offender registration case has also moved through Hall County. Local authorities said Parsons was arrested there after deputies said he failed to register as a sex offender, and he was back in jail in Hall County as the new indictment came forward.

Parsons’ name now sits at the center of two different systems that are meant to enforce public trust in lawyers and in the criminal courts. One matter stripped him of his authority to practice law in Georgia; the other put him before a new criminal charge tied to registration requirements that are enforced by local law enforcement.

For Forsyth County, the timeline is especially stark. In less than two weeks, the same former attorney went from being disbarred by the state’s highest court to facing an indictment that reaches into Hall County, with both counties now part of a case that has shifted from professional discipline to a criminal proceeding.