Daniel A. Bernath

Daniel A. Bernath, came to the military community’s attention when someone noticed that he had declared himself to be a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, claiming that he had been honorarily promoted by the National Association of Naval Photographers (NANP) to that rank. The NANP replied that they never bestowed that rank on anyone in their organization – that only the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy can bestow that honor.

The picture above of Mister Bernath was on his VFW Posts’ website (that Mr. Bernath made for them). A reverse search on the photo turned up the portrait of Photographer Mate 1st Class John Sheppard. Bernath, who had been accused years earlier of claiming some of Sheppard’s photos for himself, photoshopped his head onto PH1 Sheppard’s portrait and added a rocker to his rank. Bernath also appropriated the badges and medals of PH1 Sheppard. Including the Navy Aircrew Wings, the Navy Expeditionary Medal, and the Navy Good Conduct Medal along with hash marks on his sleeve for twenty years of service – none of which appear in Bernath’s records;

After further internet searches, it was found that Bernath customarily wore awards that he hadn’t earned in public along with self-awarded honorary rank;

It was also discovered that this wasn’t the only time he had photoshopped his head onto a picture of someone else;

This picture he used in advertising for his business – a photo that he hijacked from a fellow lawyer;

Upon further research, we discovered that Lawyer Bernath had been denied permission to practice law in California in 1995 for nonpayment of child support to his first wife. He was reinstated into the California Bar in 1997. By that time, he had moved to Oregon and tried to get admitted to that State’s Bar Association. He passed the Bar Exam there, but the Bar Association denied his admission because “we conclude that applicant has not proved that he possesses the requisite good moral character and fitness to practice law in this state.” Bernath took his case to the Supreme Court of Oregon and they agreed with the Bar Association for the following reasons;

In its recommendation to this court, the Board identified the following findings of the three-member panel that the full Board believed demonstrated applicant’s lack of good moral character and fitness to practice law in Oregon:

“(A) He disobeyed a court order to pay child support.
“(B) He was suspended for over a year in the State of California for failure to pay child support.
“(C) He failed to inform the Board that he was suspended from the practice of law in the State of California and he lied to the Board about his suspension in California, stating that he was not suspended when he was in fact suspended.
“(D) He loaned money to a client, Tamara Varner (‘Varner’), and collected on the loan from settlement proceeds from Varner’s lawsuit without Varner’s knowledge or agreement.
“(E) He signed Varner’s name to a release without Varner’s knowledge and without advising the opposing party or counsel for the opposing party that he was signing the release on behalf of Varner. On that same release he signed as a witness, attesting to the authenticity of Varner’s signature.
“(F) He lied by omission to the Board when he told it that he did not notarize the Varner settlement document.
“(G) He endorsed Varner’s name to the settlement check without Varner’s knowledge and without advising the bank that he was doing so.
“(H) He retained all of the proceeds of the settlement without Varner’s knowledge or agreement.
“(I) He failed to respond to a notice from the Committee on Arbitration of the Los Angeles County Bar Association that Varner was disputing his fee and that there would be an arbitration of the dispute. He also failed to appear at the hearing.
“(J) He failed to advise the Board of the fee dispute or the award in favor of Varner and against him in the amount of $10,000.
“(K) He wrote a letter to Varner after entry of the award against him wherein he misrepresented the law and threatened to sue her if she did not agree to settle with him for $500.
“(L) He destroyed all of his files for all of the cases he handled in California.
“(M) A judgment was entered in California against him in the amount of $34,000 for malicious prosecution.
“(N) He lied by omission to the Board when in his application for admission he stated that the judgment for malicious prosecution was reversed, but did not state that it was reversed by stipulation of the parties rather than on the merits.
“(O) He failed to inform the Board about a lawsuit to which he was a party and which settled in applicant’s favor for the amount of approximately $41,000.00
“(P) On May 16, 1997, he issued subpoenas on which he holds himself out to be an attorney practicing in Oregon
“(Q) Applicant failed to inform the Board about a lawsuit in which applicant was a plaintiff in an attorney fee dispute
“(R) Applicant failed to inform the Board that a motion for sanctions was made against him for appearing at a deposition while carrying a concealed weapon and that a sanction was assessed against him in the amount of $750.”

So, because he couldn’t practice law in Oregon, Bernath started a practice in working for folks who were trying to get Social Security Disability benefits. The Social Security Administration doesn’t require claimant representatives to be lawyers. In that endeavor, he ran into an administrative law judge by the name of Dan Hyatt. Judge Hyatt had little patience with Mr. Bernath’s antics. According to The Oregonian, Bernath had a history of filing Bar complaints against his fellow lawyers when their interests in clients collided.

A collision of some sort is what happened at an elevator in the courthouse one day, March, 31, 2010, between Bernath and Judge Hyatt. Bernath ended the encounter in handcuffs and a charge of disorderly conduct. Prior to this, Federal Protective Officers were required in every courtroom where Bernath happened to be plying his trade because of his short temper and now even more so. He filed six Bar complaints against the judge, all baseless and dismissed. According to the Oregonian, Bernath accused Hyatt of “lies, cruelty and racism, once lampooning him as a hooded Ku Klux Klansman with a Social Security emblem on his chest”.

The upshot was that the Social Security Administration barred Bernath from practicing as a claimant representative.

In 2008, Daniel Bernath intentionally crashed his car into a pallet of soil at his local Bi-Mart Store. According to the Portland Tribune, the store had put some of their wares in a handicap spot. Bernath complained that they were parking the soil in “his” parking space, because he claims to be disabled. He later filed a 17-page complaint against employee-owned corporation. However, there’s doubt if anything came to pass over the lawsuit. For pictures of the incident, he dragged out his medals, his cane and Navy accoutrements again;

For decades, Bernath has used his law school education as an excuse to lie. He lies to the point of bullying. He especially likes to pick on women, to bully women. In court last year, he was admonished by a judge for his language and the way he treated an opposing woman lawyer in a large lawsuit that he brought against 50 people. Some of those people were only screen names on an internet forum, people who he couldn’t identify, so he took a shot in the dark and dragged people into court that had no connection to the case. He dragged businesses that weren’t connected to the forum into court. Of course, the judge dismissed the case eventually.

He recently filed a lawsuit against the two women who prosecuted his case in a hearing at the California Bar Association in Los Angeles. He sued them in Florida and the judge there dismissed the case, too.

Last month, he was in Virginia trying to harass the Shipleys He thought he was going to get away with it, but as the story was told to me, he was boarding his flight in Norfolk when the locals escorted him from the boarding queue and slapped him in irons;

That’s the mugshot at the top of the page.

So, I’m in the hospital, recovering from a bout with pneumonia, Bernath made a call to the local police here and reported my wife for elder abuse.

Maybe it wasn’t him, but if not Bernath, then, who? He’s done the same to others. SWATTING some, reporting others to Child Protective Services.

I know he jealous of my wife, but cheezum crow. I guess there’s no depth he can’t reach.

Category: Bernath