Missing Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar's license to practice law has been deemed inactive by the state Supreme Court because the renewal form was not completed.
Elaine Bixler, state Supreme Court disciplinary board executive director and secretary, said there are 55,000 active lawyers in Pennsylvania, and each July 1, it is mandatory for every lawyer to return a renewal form that updates information.
It is also compulsory to send in a check for $175.
If these actions are not completed by July 1, there is a late penalty fee that can be as high as $200.
"In Mr. Gricar's case, he would have to pay the $175 and the $200 in late penalty fees," Bixler said. "However, Mr. Gricar's license to practice law was not suspended, it was transferred to inactive status ... suspensions are restricted to disciplinary actions."
A trustee or anyone who has power of attorney could sign on behalf of an absent or unable lawyer to renew the license to practice law, Bixler said. A trustee or power of attorney will be able to renew Gricar's license to practice law for as long as he or she wishes, she added.
"The renewal form could even start to go to the trustee's address," Bixler said.
Gricar's family attorney, Amos Goodall, said a trustee, in this case Gricar's daughter Lara, has the responsibility of safeguarding the person's property and keeping his or her affairs in order.
Goodall said the fee was not paid because the family did not receive the bill. He added that Lara Gricar will sign the renewal form, and the $375 will come from Gricar's funds.
Once the paperwork has been sent to the state Supreme Court disciplinary board, Gricar can be reinstated to active status within a few days, Bixler said.
Goodall said the family learned about Gricar's inactive status Tuesday but that Lara Gricar should have received the document via e-mail yesterday. Goodall said he expected her to sign it and e-mail it back to him as of yesterday so he could send it in to the disciplinary board immediately.
"There is no reason to believe that Mr. Gricar is not alive, and we want to make sure everything is in place so when he comes back, he can pick up on his life again," Goodall said.
Acting District Attorney Mark Smith said the initial invoice, which requires the attorney to verify data and sign, came to the district attorney's office in May. Smith said he called the state Supreme Court office requesting to fill out the form and sign it as acting district attorney for Gricar but was told he could not.
The Bellefonte Police Department said there are no new developments, and they have not received an update on the status of the FBI investigation on Gricar's hard drive that was found in early October in the Susquehanna River.
The hard drive was found about 100 yards from the area where two fishermen discovered his county-issued laptop in July. The hard drive was transferred to the FBI in October and is being processed in a California "clean room" by experts attempting to recover data despite the hard drive's condition.
Bellefonte police officer Darrel Zaccagni said Monday that he was having a difficult time reaching anyone from the FBI to get a status report.
In response to the stagnant investigation, Pennsylvania state Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, wrote a letter to Inspector General Glenn Fine at the U.S. Department of Justice demanding a "fresh, complete and independent investigation" of the Gricar case and the case of another prominent lawyer found murdered in Pennsylvania, Jonathan Luna.
"I think there has been very little public focus on who [Gricar] was investigating and prosecuting," Cohen said.
Smith said he and the district attorney's office would assist in any investigation of Gricar's cases.
"We would fully cooperate with whoever is investigating it," Smith said.
Cohen added that he thinks the most likely explanation for Gricar's disappearance is that he was killed.
"Generally, people don't just vanish," he said.
