A South Florida lawyer has been suspended for a year for, knowingly or unknowingly, helping an attempted fraud by a woman who was trying to swipe real estate.
The lawyer is Cooper City’s Ashley Morin, 30. The woman is Hollywood’s Suzanne Corcoran, 67. The victim is Fort Lauderdale attorney Ryan Shrouder— Morin’s former boss and Corcoran’s son.
On the criminal side of things, Morin and Corcoran each got her own four-year probation that runs until June 17, 2029. Corcoran pleaded no contest to filing false documents and fraudulent use of personal ID. Morin pleaded no contest to two counts of fraudulent use of personal ID and one count of forgery.
As of Sunday, Morin was one month into the suspension handed down by the state Supreme Court that disdained the opinion of professional discipline case referee, Judge Paul Anthony Damico. Damico recommended a 90-day suspension for Morin, finding she showed remorse and didn’t act with a dishonest or selfish motive.
“Ultimately, at my core, I knew that I needed to accept responsibility because ultimately I allowed this lady to manipulate me,” Morin said at the sanction hearing before Damico. “At the end of the day, attorneys are held to a higher standard and I should have known better…So I wanted to accept responsibility for that.”
The state Supreme Court looked at the referee’s report and didn’t believe Morin, a member of the Florida Bar since September 2021.
“Additionally, the recommended sanction, a 90-day suspension, is disapproved, and [Morin] is hereby suspended from the practice of law for one year,” the court ruled.
Running errands and a real estate con
What follows comes from the referee’s report and the probable cause affidavits after Morin and Corcoran’s arrests.
Until just before May 8, 2003, Morin worked at the Fort Lauderdale firm of Shrouder, Karns & Mager.
“Although [Morin] and Ms. Corcoran were only casual acquaintances,” the referee’s report said, Morin and Corcoran met for lunch before Morin drove Corcoran around “for numerous errands.”
Corcoran got a document notarized at a UPS store while Morin waited in the car. Then, Corcoran asked Morin to get her a quit claim deed, “supposedly for a property in Tennessee,” the referee’s report said.
(A quit claim deed is a legal document that transfers a property owner’s interest in real estate to another person without offering any warranties or guarantees about the title’s validity,” PNC Bank explains. “This means the person transferring the property (the ‘grantor’) is simply giving up whatever rights they may have in the property to the ‘grantee.’”)
Morin drove them to the Davie/Cooper City Broward County Library branch, quickly applied for and acquired a library card. This allowed her to use the library computer and print out a quit claim deed she’d worked on while at Shrouder Karns & Mager.
Quit claim deed in hand, Corcoran called another son to pick her up at the library. But, soon after, Corcoran phoned Morin again. She wanted Morin to come to the Broward County property appraiser’s office with the original documents that Corcoran left in Morin’s car.
“Ms. Corcoran originally attempted to record a quit claim deed that was a copy and was told the original was needed,” the referee’s report said. “That quit claim deed was a forgery, where [Shrouder’s] notarized signature was done with a signature stamp, stolen from [Shrouder’s] office. That quit claim deed removed [Shrouder] as a co-owner and left Ms. Corcoran as the sole owner of the house.”
Broward County Property Appraiser records say the house is a 1994-built, 1,794-square-foot, three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom house in Cooper City. Corcoran bought it in 1994, then included Shrouder as a joint owner with rights of survivorship. After the May 8, 2023, quit claim deed’s forgery was discovered, another quit claim deed was filed June 2, 2023that rectified the situation.
How did Corcoran get the signature stamp? Morin’s arrest report says she stole it from Shrouder’s office. Corcoran’s arrest report say she stole it or duplicated it without Shrouder’s permission.
“[Morin] admits she committed the physical acts alleged but testified that she had no knowledge that a forged deed was being notarized and never looked at the documents left in her vehicle that she returned to Ms. Corcoran at the property appraisers office,” the referee’s report said.
“Ms. Morin took responsibility for the fact that a portion of a document she had drafted was ultimately filed in the public records, that [Corcoran] was able to manipulate the deed, and that she should have been more diligent, thorough, and asked more questions.”
