BEVERLY HILLS—Local attorney Michael H. Inman was arrested on Tuesday, June 15 at around 9:30 a.m. at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, says a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department.
The attorney was within a facility with inmates at the time, waiting for the day’s court appearances. During the normal pat down and investigating procedure before inmates are allowed inside a courtroom, a dog that is trained to locate drugs on a person or hiding in other places inside the secure location, “focused on attorney Inman,” Steve Whitmore, a L.A. Sheriff Dept. Spokesman said in a statement.
Deputies on duty then searched attorney Inman and allegedly found 19 grams of black tar heroin and about 2 grams of methamphetamine in the attorney’s possession. Whitmore referred to the incident as a “brazen attempt to bring narcotics into an otherwise secure facility.”
The attorney has faced previous Bar disciplinary action, including a 30-day suspension of his law license in 1999. In addition to the suspension, Inman was ordered to pay restitution in connection with a civil dispute filed. It is being reported that at the time of the suspension he suffered from a substance abuse problem.
Whitmore and other authorities declined to say where on Mr. Inman’s person the drugs were found. Calls to Inman’s office were not returned by press time. Inman was being held in lieu of $190,000 bail.
